UPDATE: ICE defends the deportations. Rebecca Adducci, field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Detroit, said: “The operation in this region was specifically conducted to address the very real public safety threat represented by the criminal aliens arrested. The vast majority of those arrested in the Detroit metropolitan area have very serious felony convictions, multiple felony convictions in many cases. I applaud the efforts of the law enforcement personnel who, day in and day out, put their lives on the line to protect this community.”
Also, an expert on immigration law with more than 20 years experience states that “there are multiple ways that a naturalized citizen can block deportation legally if they have only committed minor crimes. The 114 in Detroit did not commit minor crimes. Previously Iraq would not take them back and therefore the US could not deport them. The negotiation in which Iraq accepted them back involved having Iraq dropped off Trump’s travel ban list of countries. Also, the judge issuing the order to block the deportations does not have jurisdiction in these cases.”
That puts this whole affair in a vastly different light.
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This is good news, but these deportation proceedings need to be quashed altogether. Trump was initially determined to ensure that refugees from Muslim persecution were given preferential treatment. Whoever is making this happen is likely trying to punish these Chaldean Christians for opposing the construction of a mega-mosque in Sterling Heights, Michigan. This person should be identified and fired. Trump may not know about this, but he is the President of the United States. It is his responsibility to know, and to ensure that justice is done.
An update on this story. “Judge blocks US attempt to send Iraqi Christians back to face perils of ISIS,” by Andy Walton, Christian Today, June 23, 2017:
A US federal district judge has intervened to block the deportation of over 100 Iraqi Christians who were arrested earlier month in Michigan.
The 114 mostly Chaldean believers were rounded up because they had some kind of criminal record, according to authorities. But their lawyers claim it’s unfair to send them back to Iraq, where the US government has acknowledged a genocide against Christians is taking place.
The American Civil Liberties Union had been fighting the case on behalf of the Christians and now judge Mark Goldsmith has put a temporary halt to their deportation. He ordered a two week delay, after which he will rule again.
Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union representing the Iraqis in Michigan, said: ‘The court’s action today was legally correct and may very well have saved numerous people from abuse and possible death.’
‘Many who were picked up are not hardened criminals but for the last decades have been great citizens,’ said the local Chaldean bishop in Detroit, where there is the largest community of Chaldean Christians outside Iraq….