Iraqi Christians Celebrate Freeing of 46 Immigrants
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SAN DIEGO — More than 1,700 Iraqi Christians crowded into separate church services Sunday to celebrate the release of 46 Iraqi immigrants from U.S. custody and call for the release of others being detained in Mexico.
“It is difficult to describe it,” said 28-year-old Mufeed Yousif, one of 16 Chaldean Christians released by Immigration and Naturalization Service officials Saturday.
Yousif is part of a wave of Iraqi Catholics who have fled their homeland for Mexico in recent months in hopes of seeking political asylum in the United States. San Diego County is home to about 15,000 Chaldeans, the second-largest Iraqi Christian community in the United States, behind Detroit.
The plight of more than 200 Chaldeans drew national attention last week when Mexican authorities cracked down on a Tijuana hotel that has become a sort of halfway house for Iraqi Christians seeking asylum in the United States.
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