A federal judge in Michigan has ordered the government to provide immigration files to Iraqis being detained while they fight deportation. The detainees have been held for months while they wait on their records.
The detainees need their files to get their cases re-opened in immigration court.
Miriam Aukerman is an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. She says hundreds of detainees were being held with no end in sight while the federal government dragged its feet in providing the records.
“People are literally in jail because there’s a line at the photo-copier.”
Aukerman says the next step is to ask the judge to let the detainees return home while they fight to remain in the US. The Iraqis – most of them Christians -- say they face persecution and torture if they are returned.