A US judge has halted deportations of all Iraqi nationals – some set to be removed as early as yesterday – on the grounds they could be tortured or killed if returned to the Middle Eastern country.

US district judge Mark Goldsmith on Monday expanded nationwide an earlier order affecting mostly Chaldean Christians who were arrested in immigration raids in the state of Michigan, alarming local Iraqi communities. 

The judge said his latest order temporarily halts removal proceedings against as many as 1,444 people, including in Tennessee and New Mexico, of whom 85 faced removal as early as yesterday.

The order comes as the federal government prepares to block certain citizens from six predominantly Muslim countries from travelling to the US, after the Supreme Court on Monday partially reinstated President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban ahead of a hearing on the case.

In a March deal between the US and Iraq, the Trump administration agreed to remove the Middle Eastern country from the initial version of its proposed ban, in exchange for Iraq agreeing to take in deported immigrants.

More than 100 Iraqi immigrants with criminal records were arrested in the Detroit area in an immigration raid earlier this month – prompting a suit.

They were slated for deportation back to the war-torn Middle Eastern country with a history of religious animus.

“The community was caught off guard,” Nathan Kalasho, a member of the Iraqi Chaldean Christian community in the Detroit area told AFP. 

“We have not faced a crisis like this in the United States for several years,” said Kalasho, an operator of a charter school who is helping in a joint legal effort with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). 

Judge Goldsmith last week granted a temporary restraining order to pause any impending removals to give immigrants a chance to show that they would be in danger if sent back. – AFP, June 28, 2017.