DETROIT – Forty years ago, Jimmy Al-Daoud came from Greece to the U.S. legally as a 6-month-old baby, along with his Iraqi Christian parents, who were refugees.

The Hazel Park resident struggled with mental illness, homelessness and was convicted 20 times of crimes such as stealing power tools, assault and marijuana possession. In 2005 and 2018, an immigration judge ordered him removed from the U.S. despite the fact he had lived in the U.S. almost his entire life.

On June 2, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him to Iraq after a federal appeals court decision in April opened the door for Iraqi deportations.

This week, Al-Daoud, 41, died in Iraq after struggling as a homeless man on the streets of Najaf and Baghdad to find insulin he needed for his diabetic condition, according to friends, the American Civil Liberties Union and U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich.

For the past two years, Iraqi-American Christian leaders in Michigan have said that deporting Chaldeans back to Iraq would be a virtual death sentence. Al-Daoud’s death on Tuesday has confirmed their fears, say advocates.

“Jimmy Al-Daoud, a Chaldean resident of Oakland County, should have never been sent to Iraq,” said Levin. “For many reasons, 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 customs, did not speak the language and ultimately, had no access to medical care, would put his life in extreme danger. Jimmy died tragically yesterday of a diabetic crisis. His death could have and should have been prevented.”

‘A point of desperation’: Iraqi refugees removing GPS trackers to avoid deportation

ICE officials told the Free Press on Thursday that Al-Daoud cut off his tether in December and had absconded until police caught him in April for vehicle larceny. ICE said they provided him with enough medication to ensure his care when they deported him in June.

A video in June of Al-Daoud in Iraq that the ACLU says was taken by another deported Iraqi national shows him explaining how ICE agents deported him despite his pleas to stay.

“I was deported 2½ weeks ago,” he said in the video posted on Facebook, wearing a red shirt and sitting on the street. “I’ve been in the United States since 6 months old. … Two and a half weeks ago, immigration agent pulled me over and said I’m going to Iraq. And I refused. I said I’ve never been there. I’ve been in this country my whole life. … They refused to listen to me. … They wouldn’t let me call my family, nothing. … I begged them, I said, ‘Please, I’ve never seen that country. I’ve never been there.’ However, they forced me.”

Al-Daoud described his stay in Iraq as confusing and desperate.

“I don’t understand the language,” he said in the June video. “I’ve been sleeping in the streets. I’m diabetic. I’m take insulin shots. I’ve been throwing up, throwing up … trying to find something to eat. I got nothing over here.”

Levin and the ACLU confirmed that the video is of Al-Daoud.

Al-Daoud suffered “from mental health issues and had diabetes that required insulin twice per day,” said ACLU Michigan spokeswoman Ann Mullen. “He died in part due to not having access to quality health care despite being able to periodically receive insulin.”

It’s unclear whether Al-Daoud was born in Iraq or Greece, said the ACLU. Some documents show he was born in Greece, others in Iraq.

Leaving Iraq, his parents “made their way to Greece, where they applied for refugee status in the U.S.,” Mullen said. The family was in Greece just a few months before being admitted into the U.S. in 1979.

His death has outraged some in metro Detroit’s Iraqi Christian community, one of the largest in the U.S.

Officials with ICE in Detroit told the Free Press in a statement that Al-Daoud has a long history of criminal convictions over the past 20 years. Spokesman Khaalid Walls said Al-Daoud entered the U.S. “lawfully in 1979, before violating the terms of his status due to several criminal convictions.”

Under law, legal immigrants can be deported if they commit certain crimes.

ICE Detroit office said: “Al-Daoud has an extensive criminal history involving no less than twenty convictions between 1998-2017, to include assault with a dangerous weapon; assault and/or battery; domestic violence; contempt of court-failure to appear; breaking and entering; malicious destruction of a building; malicious destruction of property; assaulting, resisting, or obstructing a police officer; disorderly conduct; home invasion; possession of marijuana; larceny; breaking and entering a vehicle, and receiving and concealing stolen property.”

In 2008, Al-Daoud had a stroke of luck when he won $20,000 in a Michigan lottery contest called “Strike it Rich.”

But he continued to break the law.

In 2012, Al-Daoud was arrested after he stole power tools from a garage in Ferndale, reported WWJ at the time. He was described in the story as a homeless man.

A Michigan appeals court later threw out the conviction after he served his time because he had represented himself in court without the judge warning him of the risks, reported the Associated Press in 2015.

ICE said that “Al-Daoud’s immigration case underwent an exhaustive judicial review before the courts ultimately affirmed he had no legal basis to remain in the U.S. He was ordered removed from the United States to Iraq on Nov. 8, 2005.”

In 2017, Al-Daoud became part of the ACLU lawsuit filed against ICE to block the deportations. ICE had arrested about 1,400 Iraqi nationals living in the U.S., most with criminal convictions who had final orders of deportation.

Before President Donald Trump took office, they were allowed to stay, but the Trump administration sought to remove them after striking a deal with Iraq to take them back. Many were able to have their cases reheard in immigration courts and temporarily had their deportations halted, but in December, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the ACLU, saying the deportations could not be blocked. In April, the full court refused to rehear the case, which means the deportations can continue.

“He was later granted a motion to reopen his immigration case but was again ordered removed to Iraq on May 14, 2018,” said ICE spokesman Walls. “Al-Daoud waived his right to appeal that decision.”

Levin said he’s trying to help get Al-Daoud a Catholic burial in Iraq. Christians are a minority in Iraq, where they are increasingly persecuted.

“At the moment, Iraqi authorities will not release Jimmy’s body to a Catholic priest without extensive documentation from his family members in the U.S.,” Levin said. “This seems to be a cruel irony, indeed. I am working with the Iraqi government to make sure this process happens as quickly and smoothly as possible.”

“Jimmy’s death has devastated his family and us,” said Miriam Aukerman, ACLU of Michigan senior staff attorney, who is litigating the Hamma v. Adducci lawsuit filed against ICE on behalf of Iraqi nationals. “We knew he would not survive if deported. What we don’t know is how many more people ICE will send to their deaths.”

Aukerman said Al-Daoud was “sleeping on benches in Najaf with no food, no money, nothing but the clothes on his back.”

According to ICE Detroit officials, “Al-Daoud was released from ICE custody on Dec. 18, 2018, pursuant to a Nov. 20, 2018, federal court decision, which ordered the release of Iraqi nationals who had been detained for removal.”

Al-Daoud then “immediately absconded from ICE’s noncustodial supervision program by cutting his GPS tether on the day of his release.”

ICE said he “remained an absconder until he was arrested by local law enforcement for larceny from a motor vehicle in April 2019. At his June 2, removal, he was supplied with a full complement of medicine to ensure continuity of care.”

Al-Daoud had first arrived in Najaf and then ended up in Baghdad, said Levin’s office and the ACLU.

In the June video taken a couple of weeks after his deportation – believed to be in Baghdad, according to Levin’s office – Al-Daoud recounted being thrown off the property of a place where he was trying to sleep because he was homeless.

“I was kicked in the back a couple of days ago,” Al-Daoud said, by a man who told him to “get off the guy’s property. I was sleeping on the ground. He claimed it was his property. I begged him, I said, ‘Please, I’ve never seen this country. I don’t understand the language. Nobody speaks English.’ “

Follow Niraj Warikoo on Twitter: @nwarikoo