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On January 19, the Iraqi army declared it fully controlled the district of Tel Kaif in northern Mosul from ISIS militants after it had launched a three-pronged assault on the town.

Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah, commander of the 'We are Coming Nineveh' operation said in a statement that the Iraqi armed forces took control over Tel Kaif, the Rudaw reported.

Tal Kaif, 10 kilometers north of Mosul and home to a sizable Christian population, was under siege for more than two months.



The Iraqi army announced the full siege on Tel Kaif in late October. Two months later they conducted an operation south of the town to cut ISIS supply lines along the Mosul-Tel Kaif road.

On October 20, 2016, the Iraqi Army's 9th Armored Division, backed by the Nineveh Plains Protection Units (Assyrian forces) and Muslim Shia Popular Mobilization Units (Hashd Al-Sha'abi), launched an assault in northern Mosul, targeted the ISIS-held town of Batnaya and finally liberated the Assyrian town, al-Masdar News reported. Batnaya is a historically Assyrian town that was captured by the ISIS in mid-2014.

Now the Chaldean church in Tel Kaif is again full, reopened with the Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon and head of the Chaldean Church, Patriarch Raphael Louis Sako.

“Today we brought back part of our dignity,” said Sophian who raised the cross on the roof of the church. “We are returning to our city and reconstructing our churches and all administrative units.”

Sophian, like many in Tel Kaif, were displaced from their homes during ISIS rule, but the population is starting to return.

On January 27, Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Raphael Louis Sako visited the region of Iraq recently recaptured from the ISIS, to confer with officials who are beginning the rebuilding process there.

Meanwhile, Chaldean archbishop Abp. Yousif Mirkis criticized the integration process for Iraqi refugees in Europe, saying, "The effort and money spent to integrate these immigrants — if we spent it at home, it would have been a thousand times better." He criticized the integration process, saying that families are often separated among different countries and disillusioned by their new lives in Europe.

The situation is not way different for Christian refugees in the US. During the Obama administration, some Iraqi asylum seekers trying to join family members in El Cajon were sent back overseas. San Diego County is home to more than 60,000 Chaldeans, many of whom fled persecution by ISIS.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported how the new immigration ban imposed by Trump Stoked fear among Chaldean Christians in San Diego and El Cajon. James Elia, a U.S.-born citizen of Iraqi descent who lives in El Cajon, is concerned for his uncle, cousin and cousin’s children, who after years were recently cleared to come to the U.S. as Christian refugees from Iraq. Family and friends in El Cajon had been in the process of raising money for the refugees preparing for their travel and resettlement. Their fate now is uncertain, even though Trump has indicated that he’d like to prioritize Christian refugees over Muslims.

“This executive order, it’s a death sentence. No matter what we do, they can’t come here until our president figures out what he wants to do,” Elia, 30, said.

Many of those who have fled the ISIS were left with nothing, including birth certificates or identification.

San Diego County Chaldean leader Mark Arabo said he’s been flooded with phone calls from the local community asking what Trump’s executive order means for them, including whether it is safe for green-card holders to cross into Tijuana for medical services.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security clarified Saturday that the executive order pertains to green-card holders who come from the seven countries and are caught outside the U.S. They would be allowed back in on a case-by-case basis.

“We have over 10,000 Chaldeans in San Diego who have green cards” Arabo said, meaning 50,000 Chaldeans don't have green cards and their fate remains unknown.

“It’s a lot of unknowns,” Arabo said. “We are telling them not to cross the border because we don’t know.”

“There should never be a religious test of any kind to enter the United States of America. The one thing we do finally see is that he’s recognizing the extreme persecution of religious minorities, yes, but we should let everyone in. A refugee is a refugee, period,” Arabo said.