Judge declares Sacramento refugee is danger to community, flight risk — won’t order release
A federal immigration judge has rejected a bid for Iraqi refugee Omar Ameen to be released back to his family in Sacramento on bond, declaring he is a flight risk and a danger to the community, The Sacramento Bee has learned.
The order from Judge Tara Naselow was issued Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the case.
Ameen’s three attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a Justice Department spokeswoman said no information on the order could be released without a Freedom of Information Act request.
The judge’s order follows hearings in Van Nuys last week in which a naval intelligence officer and a Sacramento-based FBI agent testified that Ameen has ties to terror groups and that recordings of his phone calls from jail indicates he still has communications with terror suspects.
“The investigation into Omar Ameen is unlike any I’ve ever seen, one with such derogatory information about an individual,” FBI Special Agent Jessi T. Groff said during her testimony. “The FBI assesses that Omar Ameen presents a serious danger to the community.”
Navy Lt. Adrian Medina testified that “multiple sources of intelligence” indicate Ameen was a manufacturer of improvised explosive devices for al-Qaida in Iraq and has ties to ISIS, although Medina repeatedly said he could not provide specifics of much of his information because it is classified.
The order marks the second time since December 2021 that the same judge has ruled against Ameen’s release.
Ameen has been in custody since August 2018, when FBI agents raided his family’s Arden Arcade apartment and arrested him in an effort to have him deported to face trial in Iraq over the 2014 slaying of a police officer there.
U.S. and Iraqi authorities alleged Ameen was a terrorist leader, something he and his lawyers have adamantly denied.
A federal magistrate judge in Sacramento ruled a year ago that the government had not proven its case against Ameen and ordered him released, but he instead was turned over to immigration authorities to face deportation.
A judge ultimately found that government attorneys had not proven Ameen participated in terror activities but determined he lied on his immigration papers to gain entry to the United States.
The government has been seeking to deport him over that, and has kept him in custody in Southern California.
Last month, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered the bond hearing held Monday to determine whether Ameen could be released from custody while immigration proceedings continue. That judge ruled that the government had the burden of establishing that Ameen posed a flight risk or danger to the community.