He was one of the 114 Iraqis rounded up by the feds in Metro Detroit in June to be deported. Now Muzahem Alsaya is out on bond and is telling his story because he wants to stay here with his American wife.
He was part of a hunger strike inside the correction center in Youngstown, Ohio in September. That’s where many of the detainees were being held.
He was then transferred and held inside the Calhoun County Jail in Battle Creek.
He’s lived in the U. S. for 24 years after fighting in the first Gulf war for Saddam Hussein. That, he says, became a dead end.
“There was no Arab country standing up for us,” he says.
He was charged with domestic assault in 1998 and he says a judge reduced it to a public disturbance. For that, the U.S. wants to deport him.
“We made mistakes. Nobody’s perfect. We made mistakes. We need a second chance.”
He will spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with his wife in Metro Detroit and go before an Immigration Judge in January.
