AT MIDNIGHT on July 24th a two-week stay of deportation for more than 1,400 Iraqis—around 300 Christians and dozens of Kurds among them—will expire. Mark Goldsmith, a district judge in Michigan, had prolonged the stay twice to allow time to consider a class-action suit representing 114 of them who argue they face persecution and torture, or worse, on their return. Civil-rights advocates are doing what they can to prevent the deportations. Family and friends have protested against them almost daily.
One of the Iraqis in danger of imminent deportation is Usama Jamil Hamama, known as Sam, a 54-year old Iraqi Christian who came to America lawfully as a refugee in 1974 when he was four. Mr Hamama, who lives in West Bloomfield, Michigan, where he is a partner at a local supermarket, is married and has four children, all American citizens, between the ages of 11 and 17. He is a regular churchgoer and a pillar of his community. On June 11th, just as he was getting ready to go to church with his family, Mr Hamama was arrested by...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2vSQHpT
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