The ACLU has been one of the nation's leading advocates for the rights of immigrants, refugees and non-citizens, challenging unconstitutional laws and practices, countering the myths upon which many of these laws are based. The ACLU supports rights for all people within the United States and is committed to expanding and enforcing the civil liberties and civil rights of non-citizens and to combating public and private discrimination against immigrants.
Attorneys Can Visit Clients; ICE Will Tell Detainees They Can’t Be Deported for Refusing to Go to Iraq
DETROIT – U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith today issued an emergency order granting immediate relief to Iraqi detainees. The order prohibits harassment by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intended to pressure long-time U.S. residents into agreeing to be deported.
DETROIT – The ACLU of Michigan has filed an emergency motion to protect Iraqis detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from illegal coercion and intimidation. On behalf of detainees and their families, the ACLU is asking the court to stop threats and misinformation by ICE agents, intended to pressure long-time U.S. residents into agreeing to be deported. Many detainees are from persecuted ethnic or religious minority groups.
Greyhound buses, once a symbol of travel on America’s vast highways, have become rolling traps where U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents routinely board to unlawfully interrogate, detain and arrest passengers.
The agents, with the agreement of Greyhound, stage surprise boardings without warrants to question riders about their citizenship and travel plans. In many cases, all too reminiscent of police states, the agents demand to see a passenger’s “documents.”
By Britanny Hamama
Tonight, my mom, Nahrain Hamama, is attending the State of the Union in Washington, DC, as a guest of U.S. Congressman Sander Levin.
When my mom told me, I couldn’t believe it. I asked, "The actual State of the Union?”
I feel so thankful and overwhelmed that my family has not been forgotten, that the heartache and fear we have felt the past seven months matters.
A federal court today ruled that nearly 300 Iraqi nationals who have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will have an opportunity to be released. U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith ruled that when Iraqis in the case have been detained for more than six months—as already nearly all of them have—they are entitled to go before an immigration judge and present evidence showing they should be released from detention.
By: Monica Andrade, Skadden Fellow, and Bonsitu Kitaba-Gaviglio, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Michigan
“What did we do to deserve this?”
“If they’re being deported, why are they still in detention? And how long will they be there?”
These are just some of the questions haunting hundreds of Iraqi families, whose loved ones have been held in immigration detention for months. Starting in June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement began conducting raids on Iraqi nationals with final orders of removal.
The American Civil Liberties Union and partner organizations have filed a brief asking a federal court to order the release of Iraqi nationals who have been detained for months by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A federal court has again blocked the deportation of Iraqi nationals in the U.S. who could face persecution, torture, and death if returned to Iraq.
DETROIT – Last night, Judge Goldsmith ruled federal courts have jurisdiction to delay deportations of Iraqi nationals during a review of removal orders.
“A huge sigh of relief was heard throughout the Iraqi-American community last night,” said Michael J. Steinberg, legal director of the ACLU of Michigan. “As the judge recognized, immediate deportation is the equivalent of a death sentence for some Iraqi nationals. The judge’s ruling will provide more time for Iraqi nationals to prove to immigration court judges that they would be persecuted, tortured or killed if sent to Iraq.”
