The Trump administration has been blocked temporarily in its effort to deport nearly 200 Catholics to Iraq. According to Reuters:
U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith in Michigan said he had the authority to order the government to keep the Iraqis in the county while their deportation cases were reviewed by the courts.
In his ruling, Goldsmith said sending the Iraqis back now would expose them to a “substantiated risk of death, torture, or other grave persecution before their legal claims can be tested in a court.”
Many of the 199 Iraqis detained – largely in the Detroit area but also in Tennessee, New Mexico and California – were Chaldean Catholics and Iraqi Kurds. Both groups said they could be targeted for attacks in Iraq because they are visible minorities. The government is seeking to deport over 1,400 Iraqis across the country, the ruling said.
