SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal immigration judge in Van Nuys ruled Tuesday that Iraqi refugee Omar Ameen lied on his application forms seeking entry to the United States and can be removed from the country, but she said the government had not proven its claims that Ameen participated in terrorist activities.
"The government has met its burden by clear and convincing evidence, which is the proper standard, and the court sustains allegation four that (Ameen) procured his admission by fraud or willfully misrepresented a material fact," Judge Tara Naselow-Najas found.
The judge found that Amen misrepresented the facts of his father's death — he claimed his father was killed by terrorists, while the government maintains he died of a heart attack — and also found that Ameen was not truthful when he said he had never interacted with any members of terror groups. The government had said his cousin and other family members had ties to such groups, and the judge said his cousin "was clearly a member" of such a group.
But the judge said the government had not proven that Ameen had taken part in terrorist activities, a finding that gave his lawyers hope that he can remain in this country with his wife and children, who live in the Sacramento area.
"The big takeaway — Omar is not a terrorist, as we've been saying for years," Assistant Federal Defender Rachelle Barbour said after the hearing. "He's not a kidnapper, a murderer, a highway robber, an IED maker, a financial emir, or any of the other wild allegations thrown his way. Omar has never participated in or helped any terrorist group.
"The Immigration Judge definitively repudiated all of the false witnesses procured by the FBI. The FBI repeated these witnesses' baseless claims that Omar had committed the most heinous acts — all of that was nonsense that our government has pursued for over three years.
"I hope that now Omar will be released to continue the fight against removal to Iraq, a country where government actors have falsely accused him of those acts. Our own government has found that Iraq's institutions are corrupt, and its courts and government agents engage in torture and extrajudicial killings."
Ameen was given the option in court of choosing where he might want to be sent if forced to leave, and he declined, leaving the government recommending Iraq, his native country, or Turkey, where he lived until 2014, when he came to the United States.
The judge indicated she would recommend Iraq, a destination that his lawyers have fought against because they are convinced that is tantamount to a death sentence.
"Omar has been directly threatened with an extrajudicial execution by Colonel Abdul Jabbar — an Iraqi militia leader," Barbour said. "That Colonel told Vice News 'I would drink Omar's blood.' He told my defense team that he would arrange for Omar's execution upon Omar's return. He arranged for the witnesses to falsely accuse Omar of terrorism, punishable by death if Omar is returned. Omar cannot be returned to Iraq, that is clear."
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento, which sought to extradite Ameen, had no immediate comment Tuesday.
How soon Ameen could be removed remains unclear. His immigration attorney, Siobhan Waldron, told the court that she plans to seek other remedies such as asylum or refugee status, and the next hearing in the case is set for Jan. 31.
Meanwhile, Waldron said she would pursue Ameen's release on bond, something the judge told her would require proving that he is not a flight risk or danger to the community.
The FBI raided Ameen's Arden Arcade apartment in August 2018 after Iraqi authorities issued an extradition request accusing him of being a terrorist leader who killed a police officer in his hometown of Rawah in 2014.
Ameen and his attorneys denied the claims, but he was held in the Sacramento County Main Jail as prosecutors argued in federal court that he should be returned to face trial in Iraq, a fate that Ameen's attorneys said would lead to his certain execution.
Instead, a federal magistrate judge threw the case out in April 2021, saying prosecutors had failed to make their case. The judge ordered Ameen's immediate release, but federal immigration authorities took charge and removed him from the jail, driving him to a detention facility in Southern California where he faced his deportation proceedings via video conferencing.
Ameen's lawyers have insisted he had no ties to terror and could not have been in Rawah when the officer was killed, noting that he had lived in Turkey since 2012 and that cell phone records showed he never returned to Iraq.
U.S. officials discounted the cellphone evidence and said Ameen should be deported because he lied on his U.S. immigration documents to gain entry to the United States in 2014.
His case has generated international media coverage, as well as pleas from Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and City Council members that he be released.
