(Detroit News)
Sarah Rahal April 2, 2019 9:59 p.m.
Federal immigration agents can resume deporting Iraqi detainees after the full U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld an earlier ruling by a three-judge panel.
The three-judge Sixth Circuit panel in December ruled that U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith lacked the authority to stop the deportations and grant bond hearings. The bond hearings resulted in the release of hundreds of detainees nationwide in November.
The latest ruling in the case Hamama v. Adducci brought by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2017 means some Iraqi detainees swept up in immigration raids that summer face deportation after April 9.
The ACLU said after an almost two-year fight, it had exhausted its options.
"We've taken every avenue of appeal and we're at the end of the road," said Bonsitu Kitaba, an ACLU attorney.
Some 1,400 detainees nationwide — 114 from Michigan — were swept up in the raids.
Those who still remain in detention face deportation after April 9, as do those who were released but have yet to request an immigration hearing, or those who failed to convince a judge to allow them to seek an immigration, said Margo Schlanger, a University of Michigan law professor and assisting ACLU attorney.
"If Iraq is willing to take them back, they can now be removed," she said.
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