ACLU: Feds are coercing Iraqi detainees to agree to be deported

Niraj Warikoo | Detroit Free Press

Iraqi immigrant detainees say that federal immigration agents with ICE are coercing them to sign forms saying they want to be deported to Iraq, according to a motion filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit by the ACLU Michigan on Wednesday.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleges that many Iraqi detainees were sent recently to a private prison in Georgia, where ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents and Iraqi consular officials tried to pressure them into signing forms saying they agree to be removed to their native Iraq.

The ACLU said in its motion that ICE and Iraqi consular officials are pressuring the detainees to sign the forms because: "it is becoming increasingly clear that the Government of Iraq will issue travel documents for (the Iraqi detainees) only if the class members state in writing that they desire to return to Iraq."

Some of the Iraqis did sign them, feeling pressure to do so, said Miriam Aukerman, ACLU Michigan's senior staff attorney. One of the Iraqi detainees said some detainees were reduced to tears by the pressure to sign.

"Faced with threats of prosecution or long-term, lifetime incarceration, they felt they had no choice but to sign," Aukerman told the Free Press. Many others resisted and refused to sign despite pressure from ICE and Iraqi Consular officials, said the motion filed in court.

The Iraqi detainees "have been subjected to threats, harassment, and coercion whose purpose is to elicit their statement, in writing, that they desire to return to Iraq," read the ACLU motion. ICE "recently transferred a significant number of detainees to the Stewart Detention Facility in Georgia for (Iraqi) consular interviews. There, numerous misleading and abusive tactics were employed to obtain the detainees’ signatures on documents expressing their 'desire to return voluntarily to Iraq,' even when the detainees do not actually so desire."

The ACLU is asking the judge to block ICE from pressuring the detainees. A hearing is set for Monday in Detroit to consider the motion.

There are about 1,400 Iraqi immigrant detainees who were detained last year by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, many of them in Michigan.

One year ago this week, ICE agents arrested more than 100 Iraqis across Michigan in raids that stunned Iraqi-American Christians. Many of the Iraqis detained are Christian and say they would face persecution if sent back to Iraq, where they are a minority. The ACLU and other groups filed a lawsuit last year on behalf of the detainees; a judge then blocked their deportations.

The Iraqis detained are legal immigrants, but have criminal records, which makes them eligible for deportation. In the past, those with minor records weren't targeted for deportation, but under President Donald Trump, legal immigrants who have criminal records, even for minor crimes, are being targeted for removal.

The types of crimes committed by the Iraqis in detention vary, from marijuana possession to more serious crimes like assault or homicide.

A spokesman for the Detroit branch of ICE and the Iraqi Embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday afternoon.

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The ACLU said in its motion that "ICE employees threatened detainees with criminal prosecution if they refused to sign — but in fact such a prosecution would be unlawful. ICE employees told detainees that there was no possible route out of detention except removal — but in fact there is. ICE employees told detainees that if they did not agree, they would spend years in detention — but in fact U.S. law requires their release if there is no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future."

The ACLU criticized the Iraqi Consulate, saying that "Iraqi consular officials also spoke with each detainee ... in many cases telling them, inaccurately, that their only route out of detention was to agree to repatriation. Only a few detainees successfully resisted this disinformation — and for them, ICE tried again, increasing the pressure, and may have extracted additional affirmations."

Aukerman of the ACLU said in a statement: "We are appalled that ICE would threaten our clients with criminal prosecution for refusing to say they want to go to Iraq. ICE is coercing vulnerable detainees, many of whom have been in jail for a year already, by saying that if they do not agree to be deported, they will be locked up for many years or even forever."

Last year, Iraqi detainees said ICE security guards or contractors were racially abusing them and denying them proper medical care and food.

ICE has strongly defended the arrests and detentions of the Iraqi immigrants, saying that they had criminal records and final orders of removal from an immigration judge. A federal judge ruled previously that some of the detainees should have their cases heard again before immigration judges.

The June 2017 arrests came a few months after Iraqi government officials agreed to take back immigrants with final orders of removal.

The ACLU motion filed this week contains personal accounts by some Iraqi detainees of what happened to them.

Dawood Salman Odish, one of the detainees, said that on May 19, he was transferred to Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. He said there were about 50 Iraqi detainees at the center in Georgia.

"We were held together in a room and then called out one by one into a small office," he said in the motion. "Many of the other Iraqis who came out of that small office were upset and crying. Most of them said they had signed a document agreeing to go back to Iraq."

Odish said an Iraqi official named Wasiq then called him into the room. Wasiq's business card said he was the First Secretary of the Iraqi embassy or consulate, Odish said.

Another Iraqi "diplomat who would not identify himself pressured me very hard to sign the letter," Odish said.

Odish said he refused. The next day, an ICE officer named Stewart pressured Odish to sign the letter.

Odish said he again refused.

Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com or 313-223-4792. Follow him on Twitter @nwarikoo