Deportation of Iraqi-Americans Raises Moral Questions
By: Colby Cyrus/Arab America Contributing Writer
When Majid Cholak first came to the United States from Iraq in 1971, he never imagined the circumstances under which he would have to leave. He was happy to be in the land of opportunity, with new ideas and possibilities. It was a fresh start.
Currently, it is forty-six years later. Majid, now 57, opened a cash for gold company and started a family. He is a father to four children, ages six weeks to seven years. He is a husband, a brother, and a community member. He also faces deportation.
On the flip side of normal, metropolitan Detroit life lies a not-so-hidden operation: the separation of families, individuals finding themselves singled out, and countless others facing arrest and deportation back to a country where most people could not feasibly survive.
In a style similar to those taking place across the country, hundreds of Iraqi nationals like Majid became detained in metropolitan Detroit as well as other select cities. The raids, carried out since Sunday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), resulted in numerous arrests with the threat of deportation back to Iraq, at a time when the threat from ISIS grips the region.
The situation is not unique to Detroit. It is not a Michigan, or even a national, problem. The issue is purely international, reflecting a deal between the Trump administration and the Iraqi government which removed Iraq from the crosshairs of the travel ban if it agreed to accept undocumented deportees. It may have seemed like a win-win, but now the consequences have arrived. And they reflect much more than just the need for reform in the immigration system.
Photo Credit: ABC
Nabih Ayad, lead attorney of the Arab American Civil Rights League (ACRL), says the action is a severe miscarriage of justice, noting that those facing deportation have been allowed to stay in the United States for so long simply because of the dangerous conditions at home in Iraq.
It is likely, Mr. Ayad says, that groups like ISIS will now see these Iraqis as Americans and persecute them as such. Thus, this operation delivers countless westernized Iraqis back to ISIS on what has been coined a “silver platter”, all because of a backdoor deal conducted between the Trump administration and the Iraqi government.
The deal means politics was at play. Yet, while a decision was made which caused this operation to take place, the issue is all about morals. Specifically, it is about the ethical treatment of sending someone back to a war zone because of a crime they committed decades ago. It involves separating parents from children, siblings from parents, and friends from loved ones.
ICE justifies their operation by pointing out that they target those who were previously convicted of a crime. Under this reasoning, an Iraqi national charged with marijuana possession 28 years ago must fear a knock on their door.
The agency maintains that these arrests are no different from those it makes on a daily basis, even though the targets have been in the country for decades and have long since paid their dues to society, as Majid did by serving his community through business.
The roundup of Iraqi nationals in Detroit, Tennessee, and across the nation illustrates more than the tools being used to carry out the president’s agenda. It reflects a deep insensitivity towards those whose home community is quite literally in shambles. Now, they are forced to return to the location from which they so desperately desired to distance themselves.
Politics does not dominate this side of the conversation; it does not answer the key questions of how one could watch these deportations happen, and why nobody in the administration is thinking about the humanitarian aspect. These are questions of ethics, not politics or law. They are questions about right versus wrong.
Majid Cholak’s brother, Khalid, painted the picture of a man who had achieved the American dream: family, job, and profitable career. Despite the success that Majid has enjoyed, his story as a whole divulges the dark underbelly of the U.S. immigration system: the side that pulls apart the very families to whom it promises opportunity.