ACLU: ICE falsely claimed Iraq would take back deportees

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has accused U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials of lying to a judge in order to keep 100 Iraqi nationals behind bars for months as the government tried to deport them and more than 1,000 other Iraqis.

The ACLU of Michigan said in court filings on Wednesday that ICE officials told U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith in January that Iraq would repatriate about 1,400 Iraqi nationals, including the more than 100 who are behind bars.

The ACLU now says that claim was false and that ICE knew it was false at the time.

{mosads}Iraq maintains a long-standing policy against involuntary repatriations, something ICE didn’t previously disclose, according to the ACLU.

The ACLU asked Goldsmith to sanction ICE and argued in court in Detroit that the Iraqis who are currently in jail should be released.

The ACLU said in its filing that the Iraqis in detention have faced “terrible conditions” where they have been “subjected to prolonged lock-downs, given inadequate medical care, and separated from their families.”

The detainees have remained in jail as they’ve awaited deportation, something ICE claimed Iraq had agreed to, according to the ACLU.

“Had the government been honest about Iraq’s refusal to accept involuntary repatriations, they should have been released during post-order-custody reviews. Had the government not created a false narrative of easy deportations impeded solely by this Court’s orders, they would have been released in January,” the ACLU wrote.

The 1,400 Iraqi nationals were targeted during mass immigration raids in 2017, according to mlive.com.

ICE has not commented on the ongoing case.