DETROIT — A judge has temporarily halted the deportation of more than 100 Iraqi Christians living in the Detroit area who fear torture and possible death if sent back to Iraq.

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith Thursday halted their deportation for 14 days while he decides if his court has jurisdiction to hear their plight.

The Justice Department said the detainees must go to immigration court to try to remain in the U.S., not U.S. District Court.

Most of the 114 Iraqis are Chaldean Christians, but some are Shiite Muslims and converts to Christianity. They were arrested about June 11 and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said all have criminal convictions.

The American Civil Liberties Union says they fear torture or death in Iraq, which agreed to accept them. </s> A federal court judge has temporarily halted the deportation of more than 100 Iraqi Christians living in the Detroit area who were detained in raids by federal agents. Many of them fear torture and possible death if sent back to Iraq.

US District Judge Mark Goldsmith said in a written order on Thursday that deportation is halted for two weeks as he determines whether the court has jurisdiction.

Judge Goldsmith agreed the Iraqis, many of them Christian, could face persecution in Iraq, and so they should be allowed to stay until the court can make a further ruling.

Attorneys for 114 Iraqi immigrants and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan cheered the judge’s decision, according to the Detroit News.

In a statement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it will comply with the order.

One of the attorney's Clarence Dass told RT lawyers have 14 days to file individual motions for all of their clients and get hearings in the interim.

The vast majority of the people rounded up in raids, Dass explained, left Iraq 20 or 30 years ago and lack fundamental documentation that would make them legitimate residents of Iraq, such as birth certificates and passports.

The ACLU of Michigan had filed a class-action lawsuit on June 15 to halt federal immigration officials from deporting more than 100 Iraqi nationals rounded up by federal agents. The ACLU argued it’s illegal to deport the detainees without giving them an opportunity to prove they could face torture or death if returned to Iraq.

The ACLU also filed a motion asking the court for a restraining order of the people held in custody until it’s determined whether they are entitled to protection.

Judge Goldsmith heard arguments on Wednesday. Goldsmith did not make a final determination on the lawsuit, which was filed against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Goldsmith said that "the court is unsure whether it has subject-matter jurisdiction," according to Detroit News.

Dass told RT the court fight is likely to be the first to resolve the issue of jurisdiction as there doesn’t appear be legal precedent.

More than 114 Iraqis, many Chaldean Christians, were arrested by federal immigration officials in raids on June 11 in the Detroit metropolitan area.

The arrests sparked protests in Metro Detroit by supporters who say the Iraqis would face persecution in their homeland since many of them are Christians. Almost 200 Iraqi nationals with criminal records have been arrested recently nationwide by federal immigration agents.

ICE has defended the arrests, saying the Iraqis arrested all had criminal backgrounds and final orders of deportation from an immigration judge.

One of the questions is how deportation will work to a country that is embroiled in war, where towns like Mosul are occupied by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

“The biggest concern here is the vast majority of the Chaldeans, Syrians and Christians come from what is known as ISIS territory. The city of Mosul, which is the largest Christian village in Iraq, was the first raided by ISIS. Their Christian brethren have left these areas,” Dass told RT. “For them to return for sure will be to face discrimination, torture, if not the death penalty when they get there.”

Dass said a lot of these people wear their Christian faith on their bodies in the form of tattoos, with scriptures on their wrists, or crosses on their forearms. 



Dass said he had two clients that contacted him when the Trump administration first announced its immigration policy. That client base has ballooned to 23 since the raids.

Dass said he was surprised the Chaldeans were targeted as a week before Congress had passed a resolution recognizing there was a genocide underway against Chaldeans, the Syrian Christians, and Christians in Iraq.

“Just one week prior our federal government declared religious discrimination against this group,” Dass remarked. “A week later they round up the same group and are attempting to send them back to the same place where genocide is occurring, so it was very ironic.”

Chaldeans are an Iraqi indigenous community and speak Aramaic. The Chaldean Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church and uses the East Syrian rite.

The Chaldean Catholic community in Detroit dates back to the early 20th century. There are about 150,000 Chaldeans in the Detroit area, which is the largest Chaldean diaspora community living outside the Middle East, according to the Chaldean Community Foundation. </s> Federal judge halts deportation of 1,400 Iraqi nationals, many Christians, while courts review orders to remove them. </s> A federal US judge has temporarily blocked the deportation of over 100 Iraqi Christians who might face death or persecution if returned to their birth country, media reports said.

Attorneys argued that the 114 Iraqis mostly Chaldean Christians, who were picked up during a series of raids in Detroit by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) would face persecution in their homeland if returned.

Judge Mark Goldsmith said in an order on Thursday that those arrested would not be deported for at least two weeks. At the end of that period, he would make a new ruling, the Guardian reported.

The judge’s order applied to ‘all Iraqi nationals within the jurisdiction of the Detroit Ice field office with final orders of removal, who have been, or will be, arrested and detained by Ice, including those detained in Michigan and transferred outside of Michigan to other detention locations’.

Those arrested were subject to deportation orders and had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.

But the attorneys challenged whether it was fair to return this population to Iraq, where Islamic State (IS) and other jihadist terror groups have targeted Chaldeans and other Christian groups.

In a class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the local Ice field office, attorneys said most of these people had lived in the US for decades. </s> A federal judge in Michigan on Thursday blocked the deportation of more than 100 Iraqi Christians, according to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) press release.

The ACLU filed for a restraining order, which the judge granted. The 114 Christians, most of whom are from the Chaldean sect, say they risk death if they are forced to return to Iraq.

“The court took a life-saving action by blocking our clients from being immediately sent back to Iraq,” the ACLU said in a statement. “They should have a chance to show that their lives are in jeopardy if forced to return.”

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According to the ACLU, many of the 114 Iraqis have been living in the U.S. for decades. They were arrested in recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the greater Detroit area.

“We are thankful and relieved that our clients will not be immediately be sent to Iraq, where they face grave danger of persecution, torture or death," the ACLU statement continues. "It would be unconstitutional and unconscionable to deport these individuals without giving them an opportunity to demonstrate the harm that awaits them in Iraq."

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith halted the deportation for 14 days while he decides whether his court has jurisdiction to hear the case. ICE says that all of the detainees have criminal convictions. </s> A federal judge in Detroit has stopped the deportation of 1,400 Iraqi nationals while their deportation orders are reviewed by the court system.

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith halted the deportations of the nationals, many of whom are Christians, after he asserted jurisdiction over the objection by the Justice Department in a 24-page opinion Tuesday.

The judge blocked the deportations for two weeks on June 22 while he determined if he had the jurisdiction over the case. The Justice Department has insisted that a U.S. District Court judge does not have jurisdiction in the immigration matter.

Many of the Iraqis fear torture or death if they return to the country. The government says the nationals face deportation because they committed crimes in the U.S.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> A judge on Thursday temporarily halted the deportation of more than 100 Iraqi Christians living in the Detroit area who fear torture and possible death if sent back to Iraq.

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith said in a written order that deportation is halted for 14 days while he decides if his court has jurisdiction to hear their plight.

The Justice Department had argued that the detainees, including many who were recently rounded up after decades in the U.S., must go to immigration court to try to remain in the U.S., not U.S. District Court. But the American Civil Liberties Union said they might be deported before an immigration judge can consider their requests to stay.

Goldsmith heard arguments Wednesday. He said he needs more time to consider complex legal issues.

Potential physical harm "far outweighs any conceivable interest the government might have in the immediate enforcement of the removal orders before this court can clarify whether it has jurisdiction to grant relief to petitioners on the merits of their claims," Goldsmith said.

Most of the 114 Iraqis are Chaldean Christians, but some are Shiite Muslims and converts to Christianity. They were arrested on or about June 11 and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said all have criminal convictions.

Iraq recently agreed to accept Iraqi nationals subject to removal from the U.S.

"The court took a life-saving action by blocking our clients from being immediately sent back to Iraq," Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, said in a release. "They should have a chance to show that their lives are in jeopardy if forced to return."

Besides the 114 arrested in the Detroit area, 85 other Iraqi nationals were arrested elsewhere in the country, according to ICE. As of April 17, there were 1,444 Iraqi nationals with final orders of removal from the U.S. Eight already have been returned to Iraq.

The detainees include Louis Akrawi, who served more than 20 years in Michigan prisons for second-degree murder. He was accused of arranging a shooting that killed an innocent bystander in 1993.

"He's 69 years old, he has two artificial knees, and he needs surgery on both eyes. Sending him back to Iraq is unfair," his son, Victor Akrawi, told The Detroit News. </s> DETROIT (AP) - A federal judge has halted the deportation of 1,400 Iraqi nationals, many of them Christians, while the orders to remove them from the U.S. are reviewed by the courts.

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith issued a 24-page opinion Tuesday asserting jurisdiction in the case over the objection of the Justice Department. He scheduled a Wednesday hearing to discuss matters in the case.

Goldsmith earlier blocked the deportations while he considered whether he had jurisdiction over the case. The Justice Department insists a U.S. District Court judge doesn’t have jurisdiction in the immigration matter.

Many of the Iraqis, including 114 rounded up in the Detroit area last month, fear torture or death if returned to Iraq. The government says they face deportation because they committed crimes in the U.S. </s> Federal judge halts deportation of 1,400 Iraqis from US

Washington DC, Jul 11 (EFE).- A federal judge in the United States halted on Tuesday the deportation of more than 1,400 Iraqis, many of whom are Christians, who argued they would face persecution if expelled from the United States.

Some of the 1,400 Iraqis have faced deportation orders for years, even decades, but Iraq’s refusal to accept them allowed them to remain in the United States.

Their situation, however, changed in March, when Iraq agreed to receive them following a deal sealed by new US President Donald Trump.

Although the majority of the 1,400 Iraqis remain at large, immigration officials arrested 199 of them in June, largely in Detroit (Michigan) and Nashville (Tennessee), with the intention of deporting them immediately.

According to the US authorities they committed serious crimes, ranging from homicides to crimes related to drugs or weapons.

Those arrested, however, filed a joint lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the country’s leading civil rights organization, to halt their deportation.

They claimed that because of their status as minorities (as many of them are Chaldean Catholics and Iraqi Kurds) they would be at risk of persecution.

In his ruling, Judge Mark Goldsmith said deporting Iraqis would expose them to “a substantiated risk of death, torture or other serious persecution before their legal claims can be tested in a court.”

However, the Justice Department, which has not yet reacted to the ruling, argued that Goldsmith, appointed by former President Barack Obama, has no power to make such decisions.
A U.S. federal judge halts the possible deportation of Iraqi Chaldean Christian refugees until further review.