Iraqi deportations halted by fed judge

ICE arrested 1,444; advocates say peril too great at home.

A federal judge has temporarily halted the deportations of more than 1,400 Iraqi nationals whom advocates say could face death, persecution and torture upon returning to their native country.

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith issued a stay of removal Monday night for about 1,444 Iraqi nationals whom immigration authorities have said are at immediate risk of deportation, including about 85 who have recently been arrested and were expected to be sent back to Baghdad as soon as Tuesday.

The mass deportation effort comes on the heels of a deal earlier this year between the Trump administration and the Iraqi government. Iraq, seeking removal from President Donald Trump’s then-travel ban of the citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, agreed to start accepting deportees without travel documents — a move that U.S. immigration authorities say has facilitated their efforts to remove a “backlog” of people the U.S. wanted to deport because they committed crimes at some point.

Acting on that arrangement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month arrested scores of Iraqis across the country, setting off protests in Iraqi immigrant communities, particularly among Detroit’s large Chaldean Christian population.

Goldsmith, a federal judge in Detroit, moved last week to grant a request by the American Civil Liberties Union to halt the deportation of 114 Iraqis swept up in the Detroit metropolitan area, many of them Chaldeans. His decision expands the stay to include all Iraqis with final orders of removal nationwide, allowing individuals an additional two weeks to file requests to reopen their cases in immigration court.

At the crux of the immigration attorneys’ argument is the assertion that Iraq is too dangerous and that serious safety concerns entitle the Iraqis to an opportunity to reopen their claims for asylum or protection under the Convention Against Torture, due to changed country circumstances.

“At its core, this case is about process, that the government shouldn’t be rushing people back before they have a chance to raise claims,” said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, who argued the case in federal court.

The ACLU is now rushing to find attorneys for all of the Iraqis in the case, but Gelernt said the standard twoweek stay is too little time. He is hopeful that the judge will next grant a preliminary injunction, effectively delaying the deportations indefinitely until the individuals have had the opportunity to raise their claims in immigration court.

Many Americans support the deportations of unauthorized immigrants who have committed crimes, and ICE has pointed out that the would-be deportees include men who were convicted of serious crimes. But, Goldsmith wrote, these Iraqis face “grave consequences” that establish “irreparable harm.”