DETROIT (AP) — The Trump administration’s immigration enforcer is criticizing a Detroit judge’s decision to block the deportation of 1,400 Iraqis in the U.S.
Thomas Homan, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says the “vast majority” have criminal records and are a threat to the public.
The government might appeal any additional order that freezes the deportations past July 24. Justice Department lawyer William Silvis made that disclosure in court Thursday.
The government has argued that the immigration court, not federal Judge Mark Goldsmith, has jurisdiction over the Iraqi immigrants.
The immigrants, many of whom are Christian, fear their lives will be at risk in Iraq. The American Civil Liberties Union so far has persuaded Goldsmith to stop the deportations while the immigrants scramble to get their cases reopened in immigration court.
Authoritarians all the way down in this crew…
ICE is nothing more than the American Gestapo now. Fuck them. I know the Chaldean community they’re trying to bust and deport. They now live primarily in an area of Detroit where I grew up. Chaldean people are some of the most oppressed refugees this country has taken in, many of whom have been here for some time now, and have become citizens. They’ve endured both ethnic and religious persecution in their home countries of Syria and Iraq because they’re Christians. Why the fuck can’t ICE quit acting like a bunch of heartless brutes? I don’t remember them acting this outrageous when Obama was in office. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention to them then, but they sure seem to be a heartless bunch under this administration.