Protests oppose US moves to deport Kurds, Iraqis

Militant/Susan LaMont

ATLANTA — A spirited demonstration of some 75 people, mostly Kurds, marched here June 25 to protest moves by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to round up and deport refugees and other immigrants from Iraq, including from the Kurdish region. The following day, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith in Michigan issued a 14-day stay of removal for 1,444 Iraqis nationwide who face immediate risk of deportation. His ruling extended an earlier order that had temporarily blocked deportation of 114 Iraqis in Michigan.

Muhammed Dezayee, Rebwar Hassan and Yahya Noroly were arrested by ICE here June 1. Eight Latino women from Conway, Arkansas, visiting family here, joined the action. “We wanted to show our solidarity with the Muslim community,” said Itzel Velasquez. “It’s not just Latinos who are being targeted.”

“I bring my solidarity with the Kurdish and Iraqi immigrants fighting deportation,” Lisa Potash, above center, Socialist Workers Party candidate for Atlanta mayor, told participants at the protest. “Working people must demand amnesty for all immigrant workers living here to strengthen and unify the working class and our fight against the growing attacks on our rights and wages.”

Actions against detentions of both Kurds and Chaldean Christians from Iraq took place in Nashville, Tennessee, and Detroit.

The threatened deportations were the result of a recent deal between Washington and Baghdad, where the Iraqi government dropped its long-standing opposition to accepting deported Iraqi nationals who face orders of removal. In exchange, Washington agreed to remove Iraq from the Donald Trump administration’s ban on travel from a number of majority Muslim countries.

— SUSAN LAMONT