Iraqi refugee who worked as interpreter for Army released from detention

Hameed Khalid Darweesh, who worked on behalf of the U.S. government in Iraq for the past 10 years as an interpreter for the U.S. Army following the invasion of Iraq in 2003, was released Saturday afternoon, announced New York Rep. Jerry Nadler on Twitter.

He, along with Rep. Nydia Velazquez, paid a visit Saturday to JFK Airport, met with Customs and Border Protection officials and reported on Twitter that Darweesh had been released. He did not say whether the other detained refugee from Iraq, Haider Sameer Abdulkhaleq Alshawi, had also been released.

Speaking to reporters at JFK after his release, Darweesh said praised America as “the land of freedom” and “the greatest nation.”

He said all the support he received since news broke out of him being detained shows “the soul of America.”

“This is what pushed me to move, to leave my country,” he said.

Asked about Trump, said “I like him,” but expressed concern about the very same executive order that put him in detention.

The president signed two executive orders Friday, one which suspended issuing visas to seven Muslim-majority countries and barred refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days in order to give the Trump administration time to evaluate its vetting process; it’s all a part of an effort to install what Trump called “extreme vetting” of immigrants.

Nadler said he and Velazquez are working to free 11 more refugees being detained.

Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union and other legal organizations slapped Trump with a lawsuit Saturday after they filed a writ of habeas corpus Saturday morning in the Eastern District of New York to get the two detained refugees at JFK airport released.

The lawyers filed a motion for class certification to represent all those stuck at U.S. ports of entry following Trump’s executive orders.