WHY DEPORT THIS IRAQI REFUGEE?
Maybe you say, ‘You commit a crime, you lose the right to be here.’ That’s only half the story.
This is half a story. The missing half lies with the government, and at this point, the government is not very forthcoming with details. So what you’ll hear is the side of the family, and the morning of June 11, when they heard banging on their condo door in West Bloomfield, Mich., and the husband, Dorid, heard the wife, Jenny, say, “It’s the border patrol. What should I do?” And Dorid said, “Let them in.” Because he didn’t want them kicking down the door. That would scare the children, and he always protected his children.
This is the story of one of 100plus Iraqi immigrants around Detroit, many of them Christians, who came to this country seeking asylum from persecution (much like many of our ancestors did) and who now, 20, 30, even 40 years later, are being rounded up to be sent back to that same persecution in Iraq, a place few Americans would set foot in. MARIJUANA CONVICTIONS Dorid Marogi, his family explains, came here as a child refugee in the 1980s. He was 7. A few years after high school graduation, he was convicted twice for marijuana-related charges. He served nine months in jail and nine months in a work-release program. And he lost his green card.
Maybe you say, “You commit a crime, you lose the right to be here.” Maybe you have an argument. But it’s not the only argument. Here’s another:
Marogi, 42, learned from his youthful mistakes, found work as a cook, met Jenny, a U.S. citizen, at a church bingo night, married her a couple years later, and for the past 14 years has been raising a family of three kids — Kyle, Kaleb and Khloe. There’s one more on the way.
“He’s the most amazing, generous man,” his wife says. She talks about how her husband grills for the neighborhood kids, how he gives clothes and household items to those in need, how he has complied with the law for decades. She says this from a hospital bed where, suffering from multiple sclerosis, she is pregnant with their fourth child.
From the moment the immigration officials took Dorid away in handcuffs, Jenny has not seen him. He remains in a detention center in Youngstown, Ohio. Jenny was denied five straight requests to see him, she says, before finally being granted one last Friday. By that point, she could not go. The stress, she says, led to pre- mature labor symptoms — her water broke when she was only 27 weeks along — and she must now stay in the hospital until the baby comes. It’s not due until September.
“My kids don’t have their father and don’t have their mother, either,” Jenny says.
As I said, another argument. CHRISTIAN REFUGEES There are more. There’s the one President Trump himself once made about Christians being persecuted around the world. It’s the reason Iraqi Chaldeans were given asylum here for decades. Knowing what a heartless place Iraq has historically been to Christians — attacks, beheadings, mutilations, murder for refusal to convert — America would not deport even those who violated their immigration terms.
Now, in an effort to stay off of Trump’s travel ban list (which is still in the courts), the Iraqi government has agreed to take back a certain number of former nationals. And our agents are rounding them up. In simple terms, we will leave the door open to unknown Iraqis to enter, as long as we can send some back.
There’s also the nature of the crimes. Marijuana offenses such as Marogi’s are neither right nor commendable. But if we threw out every young American who got nabbed for such offenses, we’d be saying goodbye to many of our children.
“The people they’re taking are being made out to all be rapists and murderers,” Jenny laments. “That’s not true.”
They are also not terrorists. So many people hear “Iraq,” “immigrants,” “crime” and they just assume these are radical Islamists wanting to kill us. In fact, many are Christians from one of the hardest places in the world to be Christian. When critics slam empathy toward peaceful Muslims, they often say, “Christians have been persecuted more than any religion on earth.” Yet now we would ship them back to that same persecution, quite possibly to their death?
The government will say it is keeping us safe from criminals who took advantage of our policies. That’s half a story. But the other half, cases such as the Marogis — scared children, pregnant mother, non-violent crime, time served, decades without incident, a productive, American family about to be destroyed — that’s a solid half a story, too, and one that must be considered.