I appreciate Bill Newman’s most recent legal update (“Ruling may aid local Iraqi detained by ICE,” Jan. 6) on the senselessly ongoing imprisonment in the Suffolk County Jail in Boston of Easthampton resident Niberd Abdalla.
Seized by ICE and behind bars for more than six months and counting, by order of a President Donald Trump-led directive to purge the nation of political refugees from Iraq, Abdalla tragically and innocently rots away, out of sight to all, and out of mind to most.
Consider this: His Kurdish family fled for their lives under the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, only to be thrown into prison in the land that accepted them 40 years ago. Abdalla is a classic victim of the type of blind patriotism the world horribly witnessed in Europe, leading to World War II.
The ponderous question before our land is: Who is committing the real crime against the United States, not to mention humanity?
Rev. Peter Kakos
Northampton
