ROCHESTER, Minn. (FOX 9) - After being in immigration custody for a year-and-a-half, a federal judge ordered an Iraqi man's release until there's a final order to remove him from the United States.
Court documents say the 35-year-old man entered the U.S. back in 2014 as a refugee. His immigration status was made permanent, but then two years later, he was arrested for fifth degree sexual conduct in Rochester, Minnesota. Due to that arrest, Homeland Security reviewed his immigration status.
Officials say when he came to the U.S., he didn't tell the U.S. government that he was part of Saddam Hussein's elite Republican Guard, which should have disclosed.
Federal immigration officials took the man into custody in May of 2017. The man's lawyers call his pre-deportation detention unreasonable.
The man is set to be released within thirty days.