U.S. judge halts deportation of 1,400 Iraqis

A U.S. district judge on Tuesday halted the deportation of 1,400 Iraqis, many of them Christians, until the courts can fully review their asylum claims. Judge Mark Goldsmith said the district court has jurisdiction in the case after the Justice Department said the immigration courts should handle it. Goldsmith said in his ruling that sending the Iraqis back to their country now would expose them to “substantiated risk of death, torture, or other grave persecution before their legal claims can be tested in a court.” Last week, Goldsmith extended a stay granted to the immigrants as he considered whether he had jurisdiction over the case. About 1,400 Iraqis, many of them Chaldean Catholics and Iraqi Kurds, are under deportation orders nationwide, some of them from several years ago. The case took on renewed urgency after Iraq agreed to accept the immigrants in March. Goldsmith set the next court hearing for Thursday.