The Washington Times reports today that a conversation on Air Force One persuaded President Donald Trump to stop the deportations of Chaldeans to Iraq.
The Trump administration in 2017 ordered deportations of Iraqis who had been convicted of felonies and who were not citizens. That included Chaldeans, who are Catholic Iraqis and who are targeted for discrimination and persecution in Iraq, a Muslim country.
National Public Radio reported Dec. 28 that there has been an increase in the deportations and that people were being sent to Iraq without passports.
Now, The Washington Times reports that on his flight to Detroit, the center of the U.S. Chaldean population, he heard “that his administration is deporting hundreds of the state’s Iraqi Christians who face persecution abroad.”
The newspaper said Trump told autoworkers in Warren, where he gave a speech, “we talked about it long and hard on the flight in, and we’re going to make sure that we do everything we can to keep people who have been good to this country out of harm’s way. When I get back [to Washington] we’re going to give those who need it an extension to stay in our country.”
The deportation order caused some Chaldeans who had supported Trump in Michigan’s close presidential election to say they felt betrayed by the order. Detentions of Chaldeans were a key factor that led to the creation of “100 Questions and Answers About Chaldean Americans.” The guide is available from Amazon or the Front Edge Publishing bookstore.
