Tanya Moutzalias/MLive.com/AP
ishtartv.com - csmonitor.com
Trevor
Bach, June 21, 2017
Detroit—Like
many 30-somethings, Alen Hirmiz has tattoos. His – a large one of a cross and
one of Jesus on each arm – bear witness to his Christian faith. His sister and
family are now afraid they could endanger his life.
On
June 11, a Sunday, immigration agents detained Mr. Hirmiz in front of his
shocked parents at the family’s home in suburban Detroit. He’s now waiting in a
holding facility in Youngstown, Ohio, where – barring an emergency stay – he
will be sent back to an Iraq he hasn’t seen since he was a teenager.
“If
he enters Iraq,” his sister Alina Senawi says, “he will be killed.”
Hirmiz’s
detention was part of a broader federal operation that ensnared roughly 200
Iraqi-born immigrants, including 114 from Metro Detroit, the vast majority
Chaldean Christians. Christians in Iraq are routinely targeted by the so-called
Islamic State and other militia groups.
Immigration
and Customs Enforcement says that all of the detained have criminal
convictions, that their removals are in the interest of public safety. But
family members and advocates say those slated for removal have already served
their time – and that sending Christians to a region where they’re actively
hunted by terrorists amounts to a death sentence.
It
also would violate United States law, say lawyers for the American Civil
Liberties Union, which filed a class action suit against the federal government
on behalf of the detainees. The ACLU says, under the law, the detainees must be
given an opportunity to prove they could face torture or death if returned to
Iraq.
On
Wednesday, a federal judge heard arguments on whether to grant an emergency
stay. “Not only is it immoral to send people to a country where they are
likely to be violently persecuted, it expressly violates United States and
international law and treaties,” Kary Moss, executive director for the ACLU of
Michigan,” said in a statement.
Beyond
the legal questions, the case of the Iraqi Christians offer a window of deeply
conservative people of faith who now find themselves baffled at their loved
ones being caught in raids by the Trump administration. Chaldeans
overwhelmingly favored the Republican candidate, ultimately helping deliver a
close victory in politically crucial Michigan.
They
thought, many of those interviewed said, that the president would safeguard
their families because of their Christian faith.
“Everybody
supported him – we all wanted Trump because we thought Trump would do good for
us,” Steve Yaldo, an American-born Chaldean who lives in Southfield. “And now
it’s like he turned his back on us.”
Hirmiz's
family is not claiming the young man, who was born in Iraq and came to the US
when he was a teenager, is innocent of the crime he was convicted of. When he
was in his early 20s, he went to prison for taking part in a home invasion. But
he served his sentence and had straightened out, Ms. Senawi said. Before his
detention this month, he supported his family through his work at a grocery
store.
According
to the Associated Press, immigration officials said a judge determined the
detainees were “ineligible for any form of relief under US law,” but declined
to discuss the appeal process or specifics about the crime. Most of the removal
orders had been issued some time ago, some under the Obama administration, but
ICE could not remove the men until an agreement was reached with Iraq in March.
Chaldeans
are Eastern Catholics who trace their ancestry to Mesopotamia, in present-day
northern Iraq, and traditionally spoke Aramaic. In the 1920s, facing religious
oppression and seeking economic opportunity, many began immigrating to Detroit.
In southeast Michigan, the community now numbers more than 120,000, about half
the total US Chaldean population.
The
community is socially conservative and usually leans Republican, but in last
year’s election Chaldeans were particularly energized. “I have never seen the
enthusiasm we had this year to go out and vote,” Martin Manna, president of the
Chaldean Community Foundation, told the National Catholic Register in December. “Many issues
motivated people,” he added, “but especially what is happening to Christians in
Iraq and Syria.”
“Many
[Chaldeans] have hope with President Trump,” Mr. Manna said in a February
interview.
In
light of the June sweeps, some Chaldeans who voted for Trump, like Mr. Yaldo,
can’t fathom why Iraqi Christians would continue to support him. Others are
unsure about their loyalty. “I voted for Trump,” says Hala Barka, a
phlebotomist. “I don’t think he’s a bad guy.”
But
when asked by a reporter if she still supported him, Ms. Barka paused. “I’m not
sure right now,” she said. “I can’t answer that.”
At a
protest in downtown Detroit Friday, a crowd of about 100 Chaldeans and
supporters carried red crosses and erupted into passionate chants of “USA” and
“Stop Deportation! Bring Our Families Home!”
Speakers,
including Rep. Sander Levin, a Democrat who represents Detroit’s northern
suburbs, lauded Chaldeans’ contributions and decried the arrests as a needless
human rights violation. Many of the immigrants had come in the first place, the
congressman said, “to escape what American leaders from both parties have
called genocide.” The crimes the Iraqi Christains were being deported over
occurred "decades ago," Levin said, adding that for the US,
"there's no real threat here."
One
elderly man, Jalal Marcos, stood stoically off to the side holding a sign
depicting a portrait of Trump above one of the president’s tweets: “Christians
in the Middle East have been executed in large numbers. We cannot allow this
horror to continue!”
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