#U.S. JANUARY 2, 2018 / 7:54 PM / A DAY AGO

U.S. judge orders government to release Iraqis or grant bond hearings

Yeganeh Torbati
3 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge ordered the government on Tuesday to either release Iraqi immigrants it arrested last year or grant them bond hearings, in the latest judicial curb on the Trump administration’s efforts to tighten U.S. immigration.

Last year the federal government detained hundreds of Iraqi immigrants who had been ordered deported years ago due to criminal convictions. Iraq until recently had refused to take them back, but struck a deal with the United States in March to repatriate its citizens, sparking the immigration sweeps.

The Iraqis and civil rights groups representing them sued the federal government. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith, in Detroit, had previously halted the deportation of the Iraqis, many of whom are Christian, who argued they would face persecution if they were sent back to Iraq.

In his ruling on Tuesday, Goldsmith said that any of the Iraqis held for six months or longer must either be released or granted a bond hearing before an immigration judge within 30 days.

“Our legal tradition rejects warehousing human beings while their legal rights are being determined,” wrote Goldsmith.

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