Sending Christians back to Iraq (Cato Institute)

[struggle4progress]

This article first appeared on the Cato Institute site.

In 1993, Jony Jarjiss entered the United States on a temporary visa for fiancés of U.S. citizens. The relationship fell apart, and in 1994, an immigration judge ordered his removal for overstaying his visa.

Iraq refused to accept him back, and so for 23 years, Jarjiss has checked in with immigration authorities.

Then, due to a new deal with Iraq, the Trump administration arrested him in July 2017 and is now attempting to deport him. He is "terrified" ... and is attempting to reopen his immigration case. The government is trying to remove him before he has that opportunity.

During the campaign, President Trump promised Iraqi and Syrian Christians protection in the United States, and they rewarded him with their votes. Yet in March, the United States struck a bargain with the government of Iraq: President Trump would leave Iraq off his travel ban executive order in exchange for Iraq accepting 1,400 Iraqis subject to deportation orders ...

http://www.newsweek.com/trumps-dodgy-deal-sending-christians-back-iraq-708310

[struggle4progress]

1. Using Bush-Era Laws to Deport Christians

BY KRITHIKA VARAGUR
November 10, 2017

Henry was forced to board a flight from Newark to Jakarta in May. His deportation happened so fast that he couldn’t call his wife to tell her what had happened until his layover in Tokyo. When he landed in Indonesia, with nothing more than the clothes on his back, there was no one there to meet him. "We guessed his connection wrong, and he ended up sitting at the Jakarta airport for 18 hours alone, with no money," said Reverend Seth Kaper-Dale of the Reformed Church of Highland Park in New Jersey, who has close ties to the undocumented Indonesian community. "He was just dropped on the other side of the world."

David, another undocumented man in New Jersey, left behind his wife and teenage son when he was steered to the airport from a routine check-in at his local immigration office. John, a grandfather who was deported at the same time, told me he will "probably never see his kids or grandkids again."

These deportees, whose names have been changed to protect their identities, didn’t realize it, but they were all walking targets for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And not just in the months that Donald Trump has been president, but for nearly 15 years. In 2003, dozens of undocumented Indonesians registered for a post-9/11 program that could qualify as a "Muslim registry" of sorts. That program, the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERS, was a database of adult male "noncitizens" from 25 countries, all Muslim-majority except North Korea, designed to monitor potential terrorists. The 83,000 entries, ironically, included a number of Christians, like David and John, who came from the world’s largest Muslim-majority country ...

https://newrepublic.com/article/145774/trump-using-bush-era-laws-deport-christians

[Roland99]

2. YATCL. Yet Another Trump Campaign Lie