sound and fury Iraq
sound and fury Iraq deportations called inhumane Photo by David Reed By Joyce Wiswell Life was going in the right direction for Basam Jarges. Released after 20 years in prison, he married his long-time girlfriend, got a job at a hotel and started school. But all that changed on May 18 with a 5:30 a.m. knock on the door. Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took Basam from his Chicago home and a few days later deported him to Iraq on a chartered flight with other Iraqi Christians. There, his wife Nawal charges, he was left at the airport with inadequate travel documents and underwent intensive interrogation by Iraqi authorities. A Christian Iraqi noticed the proceedings and took pity on the men, Nawal said. He brought them to his restaurant and let them call their families in America. Basam is now living in Baghdad “with no electricity and no cold water,” Nawal said. “And he can’t leave the house without fearing for his life.” “My husband was here in the U.S. for over 30 years,” she added. “He knows nothing about Baghdad. He can speak Chaldean, but not Arabic.” Jarges, who was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, is not alone. As of June 14, 41 Iraqis have been deported since October and 2,724 are in removal proceedings, according to ICE spokesperson Gillian Brigham. That includes 56 people currently detained in an ICE facility. Though ICE does not break down the numbers by religion, it is believed that 10 Chaldeans have been deported from Detroit, and that an additional 500 or 600 Chaldeans across the U.S. could be affected, said Joe Kassab, executive director the Chaldean Federation of America (CFA). Accurate numbers are hard to come by, he said, because many of these men have gone into hiding. The U.S. government is having a disconnect when it comes to Iraq’s religious minorities, critics say. On one hand, an increasing number of refugees are being admitted to the U.S., but on the other, some Christians are being deported. In one case, advocates claim, a man was deported to Iraq, kidnapped and released, then allowed back in the U.S. under asylum. In most cases the men, who David C. Koelsch calls “as American as apple pie,” were deported after serving prison sentences. Others failed to gain political asylum. After being flown out of the U.S. and deposited in the Baghdad airport, they are left to fend for themselves with little or no language skills and a Christian target on their back. “These are really, really heartbreaking cases,” said Koelsch, director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Detroit Mercy. “These men may have done something stupid when they were young, but they paid their price to society. We are talking about people who don’t speak Chaldean or Arabic. For all intents and purposes they are American.” Clearing a Backlog Deportations are nothing new — ICE is currently in the process of deporting 1.6 million people, Brigham said. But the numbers of Iraqis has increased dramatically; in all of FY 2009, only 15 Iraqis were deported. The Iraqi government had not been supplying the necessary paperwork to send these people back, but now issues each a “laissez passer,” a travel document good for one use. The deportees do not have passports, which makes their situations more bleak, critics say. Many of the affected people came to the United States as children with their families and lack birth certificates and other legal documentation. As convicted 18 CHALDEAN NEWS JULY 2010
Opposite page: Sarah Alsragr at a deportation protest outside Mother of God Church in Southfield on June 6. felons, they are barred from U.S. citizenship. ICE is charged with apprehending, detaining and removing deportees, but it’s only following orders — an immigration judge actually makes the call to deport. A change in policy is needed, said Kassab. “We need to educate immigration judges not to send religious minorities back to Iraq at this time,” he said. “More important is a policy change from higher up in the administration but how you do that, I don’t know.” Judges are under the false impression that Iraq has stabilized and become safer for its religious minorities, Kassab said. But they remain in danger of persecution by Islamic fundamentalists. While the Iraqi government does not condone the mistreatment, it is “so frail and weak that it can’t protect the minorities,” he said. The U.S. is “basically sending these men to a death sentence,” said CFA Chairman Dave Nona. “Most of these people have no friends or relatives in Iraq.” They are viewed suspiciously as Americans and suspected of being spies, Nona said, thus “become open targets to insurgents and fundamentalists.” Nona acknowledges that not everyone has sympathy for convicted felons. “I would say, human rights also apply to people who have made mistakes,” he said. “It’s double jeopardy to expose them to a second sentence after they have served their time.” Koelsch said that besides drugs, some convictions include criminal sexual conduct, rape, child molestation and food stamp fraud. “The crimes in some cases are pretty horrible so the average person may not have a lot of sympathy for them. But at some point we have to have mercy and compassion for people,” he said. “Just because they are immigrants do we subject them to a higher penalty than everyone else?” The CFA and Koelsch have appealed to officials at ICE, the U.S. State Department and U.S. Senator Carl Levin for help. “They promise they will try to do something,” said Nona. “The officials coming from this administration seem to be a lot more attentive and genuinely listening to the concerns of the community, as opposed to some from the previous administration.” ‘A Nightmare’ Terri Sitto of Farmington Hills is frantic with worry about her two brothers, Aboud, 45, and Omar, 39. Both were deported to Iraq on May 25. The Sitto brothers were arrested for cocaine trafficking in 1990. Omar was sentenced to life, but released in February after serving 19 years. Aboud, who had a separate trial, spent five years in prison and after his release, two and a half years in ICE custody. He had been free for 12 years until his deportation. Terri insists both her brothers are innocent of the crime, calling it a case of being “at the wrong time, wrong place.” When the Sittos arrived in Baghdad, they were told by Iraqi officials that their documents were fake, Terri said. After more than three hours of questioning, they were released but discovered their luggage had been stolen. Aboud speaks a bit of Arabic but Omar, who had been in the U.S. since age 9, does not. A man overheard their plight and told them, “If you speak English or Chaldean, you’re dead. Your Arabic shows you are not an Iraqi. Don’t even take a taxi.” At the advice of the man, the brothers walked for five hours to a Christian church, Terri said, being beaten and pelted with rocks along the way. A priest tried to get the men passports, but authorities refused to issue them because they said their travel papers, which do not include photo ID, are fake. Now the two are hiding out in another church in a sort of limbo. “They have nothing, no clothes, no family or friends, and they can’t work without documents,” said Terri Sitto. “It’s a nightmare. It’s inhumane what they did to them.” Challenging Policy Sathab Abbo Ousacho, an immigration attorney with Troy-based Ellis Porter, has seen several deportation cases firsthand through her pro bono work with the CFA. “We’re not challenging the law per se, we’re challenging the policy,” she said. “From a humanitarian and empathetic perspective, many have served their sentences and reformed their lives. In some cases, deportation candidates were released years ago and have since established upstanding careers and lifestyles and become valuable members of society and the community. They own businesses, employ workers, and have families. It’s a broad-reaching web.” Senator Carl Levin and his brother, U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, wrote a letter to Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano on June 2 detailing abuses against Iraq’s Christians. “In light of these events, we remain gravely concerned for the safety of Chaldeans, Assyrians and other Iraqi Christians,” the men wrote. “We ask that you use any discretionary tools available to delay the removal of Iraqi Christians who Nawal Jarges will move to Iraq to join her husband, Basam. are facing deportation until conditions in Iraq allow for their safe return.” No official answer had been received by press time, but Kassab said deportations appeared to be slowing. Meanwhile, at least 60 Iraqis who failed to gain asylum have been deported from several European countries including Britain, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, according to the United National refugee agency UNHCR. The agency has been urging governments not to force the Iraqis to return, citing continued attacks and human rights violations. “Our position reflects the volatile security situation and the still high level of prevailing violence, security incidents, and human rights violations taking place in these parts of Iraq,’’ the agency said in a June statement. On June 18, the BBC reported that more than 40 Iraqi asylum seekers deported from Britain have alleged that they were beaten by British border police to force them to board and then leave the plane. UNHCR said it is investigating. Back in Chicago, Nawal Jarges — who was born in the U.S. — is making plans to move to Iraq to join Basam. The couple hopes to make it to Northern Iraq, where Christians are generally safer than in Baghdad. “I love my husband,” she said, “and I will not be without him again, America or no America.” Protect Yourself Besides to not break the law, there’s an important lesson to be learned from the recent deportation trend: Anyone who plans to live permanently in the United States is well-advised to become a legal citizen. About a third of Michigan’s Chaldean community are not citizens, estimated Joe Kassab, executive director of the Chaldean Federation of America (CFA). Many have been in the United States since they were children, but never achieved citizenship. That leaves them with little legal recourse in the face of deportation. While a Green Card allows permanent legal residency in the United States, it does not offer the same rights as citizenship, such as voting. “In many cases it’s a function of being lazy or believing that the naturalization process poses a great challenge, but the benefits far outweigh the inconveniences,” said Sathab Abbo Ousachi, an immigration attorney with Ellis Porter who volunteers for the CFA. “People are beginning to see the potential risks of not becoming naturalized citizens.” A potential citizen must be a permanent resident of the U.S. for at least five years, or be married to a citizen for at least three. The first step is to file a form called the N400 with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of Homeland Security. Eventually, applicants are fingerprinted and must pass a test on U.S. history/civics and basic English skills. Some exceptions are made for people older than 65 who have been in the U.S. for 20 years. When it comes to deportation, Ousachi said it is important for people to understand their rights. Detainees are encouraged to demand legal representation, and should avoid signing any documents without consulting an attorney. Those who suspect they could be vulnerable to deportation should seek legal counsel or call the CFA. But be wary of a lawyer who promises to fix the situation for a stated fee — until a policy change comes from the Obama Administration, these deportations are perfectly legal. Learn more at www.uscis.gov. The CFA is also a resource; visit www.chaldeanfederation.org. JULY 2010 CHALDEAN NEWS 19
