On Sunday June 11, 2017, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials began raids into homes and other establishments including the beach and even a hospital. They arrested more than 100 Iraqi nationals, mostly Christians, in the Metro Detroit area.
As a journalist of Chaldean (Christian Iraqi) background, I covered this story. It was very sad to watch the devastation these arrests created, but it was also moving to see so many people put aside their religious and political views, come together, and work nonstop to help the detained men and women stay in the United States. There were a number of local protests; this image is of a protest in my own city, Sterling Heights, nicknamed “Little Baghdad” because of its large Iraqi American population.
