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.”

DETROIT—A federal judge this evening agreed to extend for two more weeks an order that prevents Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting Iraqi nationals detained anywhere in the US.

The federal court that blocked the immediate deportation of Iraqi nationals in Michigan last week today extended its order nationwide.  

Nearly 300 Michigan attorneys and 20 Michigan legal organizations, including the ACLU of Michigan, called Thursday for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop its growing practice of arresting individuals in and around courthouses, warning that the arrests would undermine immigrants’ willingness to report crimes and unfairly limit their access to the justice system.

At a highly publicized press conference last month, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy (pictured above) cleared federal immigration agent Mitchell Quinn in the killing of 20-year-old Terrance Kellom, an American citizen whom Quinn had been authorized to arrest on a fugitive warrant. Quinn claimed Kellom attacked him with a hammer—a story that Kellom’s father has passionately disputed. 

Kary Moss, ACLU of Michigan executive director, issued the following statement today after Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced her decision to clear an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the controversial April killing of Detroit man Terrance Kellom: