A U.S. federal court on Thursday temporarily blocked the deportation of more than 100 Iraqi nationals arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month.
The American Civil Liberties Union argued on the behalf of the Iraqis that they would face torture or death if they were returned to war-torn Iraq because many of them are Chaldean Christians, a persecuted minority group.
“The court took a life-saving action by blocking our clients from being immediately sent back to Iraq,” said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, who argued the case. “They should have a chance to show that their lives are in jeopardy if forced to return.”
In recent weeks, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have arrested about 199 Iraqi immigrants across the country as part of a “backlog” of cases targeted because they have criminal records or final deportation orders.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith in Michigan blocks the deportation of the Iraqis for at least two weeks as he decides whether he has jurisdiction over the matter.
