A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan [official website] on Thursday extended his ruling [order, PDF] that Iraqi nationals with orders to leave the US cannot be deported for another two weeks. The order temporarily blocks the deportation of more than 1,400 Iraqi nationals until July 24. The American Civil Liberties Union, representing the Iraqi nationals, cited [CNN report] “fears of persecution, torture or even death upon return to their country.” The US attorney general had argued that the district court did not have jurisdiction over the issue, instead arguing that it should be up for the immigration courts to decide.

Many of the individuals affected by this temporary stay to deportation have failed to attain travel documents from the Iraqi government because they refused to grant them papers. This ruling continues a stay of the deportation order to protect 1,444 Iraqi immigrants from deportation, first issued [JURIST report] in June. In March President Donald Trump [official profile] reached an agreement with Iraq to allow the country to allow deportees in exchange [NPR report] for removing Iraq from the list of banned countries. The country continues to argue over the legality of implementing the travel ban, though it seems that the country will finally have a ruling on the issue in the coming months. In June the Supreme Court of the United States [court website] agreed to review [JURIST report] the Trump administration’s travel ban, partially lifting the temporary injunction that had blocked the ban’s enforcement.