Diabetic Man Deported by US to Iraq Dies from Lack of Insulin

Jimmy Aldaoud, a man from Detroit who was deported to Iraq in June, was found dead Wednesday after being unable to procure insulin for his diabetes.

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The 41-year-old man was born in Greece and lived in the U.S. since he was six months old. He had never been to Iraq, did not speak Arabic, neither had any family there according to his lawyer Edward Bajoka. 

“Rest in Peace Jimmy. Your blood is on the hands of ICE and this administration,” Bajoka wrote on Facebook.

“It was clear that deporting Jimmy to a country where he had never been, had no identification, had no family, had no knowledge of geography or custom, did not speak the language and ultimately, had no access to medical care, would put his life in extreme danger,” Andy Levin, Michigan congressman wrote on Twitter.

He was among more than 1,000 Iraqis that the U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has been trying to deport since 2017 as a part of a deal with Iraq. According to the deal, in exchange for deportation, Iraq will be removed from the travel ban that the Trump administration imposed a week after he took office. 

American Civil Liberties Union said that many Iraqis like Aldoud are Chaldean Catholics and at risk of being killed by Islamic Stats Group. Many of them lived in the U.S. for decades. 

Bajoka said Aldoud was a paranoid schizophrenic and his mental health “was the primary reason for his legal issues that led to his deportation.”

Levin, the Michigan Congressman who represents several Detroit suburbs said that Aldaoud should not have been sent to Iraq, calling his deportation “essentially a death sentence.”