Haydar Butris, 39, of Sterling Heights, asked an Oakland County court to set aside or reduce the 1999 felony marijuana-delivery conviction that made him deportable.[1] At a hearing on Wednesday 12 July 2017 in Oakland County Circuit Court, Judge Martha Anderson told Butris’s attorney Clarence Dass to file arguments within two weeks explaining why the 1999 marijuana-delivery plea should be reduced to a misdemeanor or removed.[1] Butris was caught with several pounds of marijuana in Oakland County in 1998 and pleaded guilty to marijuana delivery in 1999.[1]
Assistant prosecutor Jeff Kaelin argued that the county court had no jurisdiction because it is not an immigration court, but Anderson ruled that it did have jurisdiction over the 1999 conviction.[1] Butris had been sentenced to probation, and Dass said he did not know at sentencing that the conviction could lead to deportation; Dass added that no transcripts of the 1998-1999 proceedings survive.[1]
Butris was detained by ICE on 11 June 2017 along with 113 other Iraqi nationals in metro Detroit with criminal records and final deportation orders.[1] Dass said the hearing was the first criminal-court hearing for the 114 Iraqis detained in Michigan, part of 1,444 Iraqi nationals facing deportation nationwide.[1] Butris was in immigration custody in Youngstown, Ohio, and about 15 family members, including his three children, attended the hearing.[1] Butris arrived legally from Iraq as a teenager, had a legal permanent resident card taken after the marijuana conviction and became ineligible for citizenship, Dass said.[1] Dass said in court that Butris would face a potential death sentence if he were sent back to Iraq.[1] The Oakland County hearing was the first to reopen the criminal case of one of the 114 Iraqi detainees arrested in the June 2017 sweep, ClickOnDetroit reported.[2]
