DETROIT– A judge on Wednesday agreed to settle a 2017 lawsuit challenging the detention of Iraqi nationals targeted for deportation during the Trump administration.
The agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE, sets strict conditions for future detentions According to the American Civil Liberties Union, measures should be taken before any proposed removals occur.
“Too often, immigrants are detained for months or years for no reason other than that they want what so many of us already have: the chance to build a life in America. The settlement will make it easier for them to do that,” said ACLU attorney Miriam Aukerman.
An email seeking comment from ICE was not immediately returned.
The trial involved about 1,400 people, many of whom had been allowed to stay in the U.S. for years because Iraq had no interest in taking them back.
That changed suddenly in 2017 when Iraq’s stance apparently changed. ICE arrested people in the U.S., mostly in southeast Michigan, and held them on old deportation orders. Some were held for more than a year. Protesters filled the streets outside the federal courthouse in Detroit.
The ACLU argued that their lives would be in danger if they were returned to their native countries. The lawsuit sought to halt deportations and allow people to at least return to immigration court to argue their safety risks in Iraq.
U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith made key rulings in their favor. Although those decisions were overturned by a higher court in 2018, Goldsmith’s orders left them open to release and immigration court in the meantime.
Some people were granted asylum or became U.S. citizens. About 50 people detained by ICE decided to return to Iraq, Aukerman said.
“They were so upset about their detention that they just gave up,” she said. “The vast majority remain in the United States. … What we’re seeing now are very limited deportations.”
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