Michigan Man’s Death in Iraq Ignites Backlash Against Trump Immigration Policies
Jimmy Aldaoud, 41, suffered from mental illness and diabetes, and could not get the insulin he needed in Iraq. One reporter says his death was “predictable” given the circumstances.
As the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration intensifies, everyday tragedies are becoming the norm.
Last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rounded up nearly 700 mostly Latino workers in the largest raids ever conducted by the agency. Migrant children continue to be separated from families and held in facilities that have all the trappings of concentration camps.
And last week, a Michigan man died in Iraq after being deported. Jimmy Aldaoud, 41, suffered from mental illness and diabetes, and could not get the insulin he needed in Iraq.
It’s a country Aldaoud had never been to in a region devoid of and hostile to Chaldeans like him, a man who didn’t speak Arabic.
Now, with this backdrop, the Trump Administration is now considering stripping services for legal immigrants.
Ali Harb is a Washington D.C.-based reporter for the Middle East Eye who is in Michigan this week covering reaction to Aldaoud’s death.
“Imagine coming here as a 6-month-old baby, who is diabetic, and doesn’t speak Arabic, having a severe mental illness, and then being dropped in a genocide zone,” Harb says. “He was not a criminal. He does not deserve a death sentence. He does not deserve to be sent to a country with no health care system.”
Harb says the death was “predictable” given those circumstances. But he says there are no signs of the administration’s campaign against immigration slowing or stopping anytime soon.
