Tragic details of the Iraqi who died shortly after his deportation from America

 

 By Julia Chang           August 10, 2019

An Iraqi citizen who has lived in the United States since childhood died shortly after being deported to Iraq as part of President Donald Trump's administration's crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Jimmy Al-Dawoud, 41 years old, died in Iraq after being deported by U.S. immigration authorities due to complications from his diabetes, his lawyer Edward Bajuka told CNN.

U.S. authorities deported Dawoud, who had a long criminal record, in early June to Iraq, although he had no family there or contact with anyone, nor did he speak Arabic.

Al-Dawoud's body was found last Tuesday inside an apartment he shared with another Iraqi citizen who was also on the move by U.S. authorities.

"He couldn't get insulin in Iraq," Pajuca said. "That's the main cause of his death. His life could have been saved, and it wasn't necessary to do so. The death was devastating for Jimmy's family and society."

Immigration and customs officials in Detroit, Michigan, told CNN that when David was deported on June 2, "he was provided with a full range of medicines to ensure he received the necessary care."

Dawoud, a Chaldean Catholic in Michigan, never went to Iraq, although he holds Iraqi citizenship through his father.

The American immigration authorities pointed out that David was born in a refugee camp in Greece, and that his family came to the United States legally for asylum in 1979, when he was six months.

Pajuca said David's parents were dead and three of his brothers had become US citizens, but David could not.

Begging and forcing

Pajuca released a video of David captured in Iraq two and a half weeks after his deportation, in which he talked about how he was arrested by immigration officers in May, before being forced to board a commercial flight days later.

"I begged them. I said, 'Please, I've never seen this country. I've never lived there. But they forced me to leave. I am here now. I don't understand the language, I sleep on the streets,'" Daoud said in the video.

"I have diabetes and I take insulin. I have nothing to eat."

A Detroit immigration official said David had a significant criminal history that included at least 20 convictions between 1998 and 2017.

These convictions include assaulting a dangerous weapon, domestic violence, contempt of court, failure to appear before it, destruction of a building, storming a house and possession of marijuana.

Mental problems

Bajoka suffered from serious mental problems, schizophrenia, severe depression and chronic anxiety, which led to many legal problems and eventually led to his deportation, Bajuka said.

The Dawood family, along with Democratic Representative Andy Levine of Michigan, hope sought to return his body to the United States for burial next to his parents.

Levin sent a letter to the Trump administration, saying, "They should know that if they continues to deport vulnerable people to Iraq, these people will face the worst kind of destiny they can imagine."

"What is the political benefit of the United States behind these actions? I don't understand!".

Levin is overseeing a bill with Republican Representative John Molinar of Michigan to stop the deportation of Iraqi citizens in order to give them enough time to appeal their immigration cases.