Khloe
Marogi, 8, wore a T-shirt with her detained father’s photo on it at a rally on
Friday in Detroit to protest the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement
raids in which 114 Iraqi nationals in Metro Detroit were arrested and ... more >
A federal judge late
Monday issued an order blocking deportation of some 1,400 Iraqis — many with
serious criminal records including murder — ruling that the government sprung
a sneak-attack on them, and they must be given a chance to reargue their deportation
cases.
Judge Mark A. Goldsmith ,
an Obama appointee to the federal bench, sided with the mainly Chaldean
Christian migrants, who said they feared persecution at the hands of a Muslim government and
Islamic State insurgents should they be forced to go back home.
Judge Goldsmith agreed,
saying the consequences could be “lethal,” and saying even if the U.S. deports
them to Baghdad, which is under government control, “the ever-shifting
fortunes of war” could mean they end up in Islamic State territory later.
“Each Petitioner faces
the risk of torture or death on the basis of residence in America and
publicized criminal records; many will also face persecution as a result of a
particular religious affiliation,” the judge wrote.
Judge Goldsmith becomes
the latest Democratic-appointed judge to block the Trump administration’s
immigration actions, following a series of judges who have curtailed his
sanctuary city crackdown, tried to stop his temporary travel ban and refugee
pause and prevented him from stripping DACA deportation amnesty status from
one illegal immigrant.
The new ruling carves
out new ground, though.
Under federal law, immigration cases are supposed to be heard
in immigration courts, and can be appealed to circuit courts. District court
judges aren’t supposed to question those decisions.
But Judge Goldsmith said
in cases where severe rights violations are possible, judges have to step in —
and he said the law preventing them from doing so is unconstitutional.
“This ruling continues
to block the government from
recklessly sending these individuals into harm’s way,” said Judy Rabinovitz,
deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights
Project. “The court’s action could literally save lives.”
In nearly every case, the Iraqis in question
have a criminal record. Charges range all the way up to murder and rape.
The migrants have
served their sentences, and were ordered deported — in some cases decades ago
— but have remained in the U.S. because until earlier this year, Iraq hindered
deportations.
After the Trump
administration struck an agreement in March, deportations resumed, and
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began to seek out migrants
who’d been released because they couldn’t be deported.
The migrants argue
that because Iraq wasn’t accepting deportees, they never really feared being
sent back so they never challenged their orders of removal. Now that
deportation is a real danger, they said they should get another chance in
court.
The judge Monday sided
with them, saying a delay in their removals was a small price to pay for
protecting their constitutional rights.
He also chided the government for
making it tough for some of the migrants to reopen their cases, saying limits
on visiting and phone calls, and moving detainees around, prevents them from
working on their cases with lawyers.
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