Immigration officials are set to deport 199 Iraqi nationals after their home country agreed to accept deportees as part of President Donald Trump’s negotiations regarding the travel ban executive order. Prior to order, Iraq refused repatriation.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) officers carried out targeted arrest operations over the past few weeks leading to the arrest of 199 Iraqi criminal aliens. Most of the 199 Iraqis, 114, were arrested in the Detroit area, ICE officials stated. The arrested Iraqis have criminal records in the U.S. for homicide, rape, aggravated assault, kidnapping, burglary, and a host of other crimes.
As part of the ongoing operations by ICE to deliver on President Trumps campaign promise to remove criminal aliens, ERO officers have been working diligently to increase their number of arrests.
“According to federal data, there are at least 2 million criminal aliens now inside the country,” then-presidential candidate Trump said in an August speech in Phoenix. “We will begin moving them out day one, in joint operations with local, state and federal law enforcement. Beyond the 2 million, there are a vast number of additional criminal illegal immigrants who have fled or evaded justice. But their days on the run will soon be over.”
During the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, ICE arrests were up nearly 40 percent over the previous year, Breitbart Texas reported.
“The operation in this region was specifically conducted to address the very real public safety threat represented by the criminal aliens arrested,” Detroit ERO Field Officer Director Rebecca Adducci said in a written statement. “The vast majority of those arrested in the Detroit metropolitan area have very serious felony convictions, multiple felony convictions in many cases. I applaud the efforts of the law enforcement personnel who, day in and day out, put their lives on the line to protect this community.”
ICE officials had previously been blocked from deporting Iraqi citizens because their home country refused to accept American deportees. However, during the negotiations to remove Iraq from President Trump’s travel ban, the country conceded.
“(S)ince May 2017, the agency has arrested 199 Iraqi nationals nationwide, the overwhelming majority of whom had criminal convictions for crimes including homicide, rape, aggravated assault, kidnapping, burglary, drug trafficking, robbery, sex assault, weapons violations and other offenses,” ICE’s Michigan Information Officer Khaalid H. Walls wrote in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “Two individuals did not have criminal convictions but have pending criminal charges for drug trafficking, receiving stolen property and multiple arrests for domestic violence. One individual is a non-criminal with a final order of removal.” He directly attributed the arrests to the president’s negotiations with Iraq.
As of mid-April, nearly 1,500 Iraqi nationals have final orders of removal issued by an immigration judge that were previously unenforceable. Following the agreement, ERO officers began executing operations to reduce that number. Over the past several weeks, ICE officers arrested 85 Iraqi nationals in cities across the nation. Over this past weekend, ERO officers conducted targeted arrests in the Detroit area resulting in the 114 arrests.
“Since the March 12, 2017 agreement with the Government of Iraq regarding removals, eight Iraqi nationals have been removed to Iraq,” Walls stated.
Following the arrests of these violent criminal aliens, activists in the Detroit area are planning a lawsuit to block their deportations, Mlive reported.
“We are filing our class action immigrant rights lawsuit to halt the death deportations of over a dozen Chaldean, Muslim and other immigrants who were picked up during the ICE raids over the weekend,” By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) national coordinator and lead attorney Shanta Driver said in a written statement.
BAMN is a “left-wing militant group” that played a leading role in the violent protests at U.C. Berkley earlier this year, Breitbart News wrote.
Breitbart News also reported on the group’s violent tendencies in February, stating:
BAMN sees no distinction between admitted white supremecists and people who support President Trump, and considers both valid targets for attacks. Last summer, members of the neo-Nazi group the Traditionalist Workers Party on a permitted march were physically attacked by a group of about 400 protesters organized by BAMN.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.