Kicking and spitting, Iraqi arrested as illegal immigrant, feds say (The Detroit News)

Kicking and spitting, Iraqi arrested as illegal immigrant, feds say

Robert Snell/ The Detroit News

Last Updated: August 25. 2011 11:22AM

Detroit— An Iraqi facing deportation threatened to kill an immigration officer with a shard of Plexiglas, spit on another federal agent and caused more than $700 damage to a police car Friday, according to court records.

The records, filed late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, chronicle the break that kept 41-year-old Salam Daniel in the United States and a violent, harrowing trip in the back of a police cruiser in Dearborn.

Daniel was charged in federal court Wednesday with damaging government property and assaulting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer with a dangerous weapon.

The alleged incident happened when federal agents caught Daniel on Friday following a long hunt.

A federal immigration judge ordered Daniel to be deported in August 1997 because he was living in the country illegally, according to court records.

He filed a series of appeals and was supposed to be deported in October 1999.

But due to conditions in Iraq, the government couldn't remove Daniel and he was allowed to stay. He was required to periodically report to the Department of Homeland Security, however.

In February 2008, Daniel failed to check in and was considered an immigration fugitive, according to court records.

He avoided capture until Friday, when Daniel entered a U.S. Immigration & Citizenship Services office in Detroit and asked about obtaining an employment card. Daniel was arrested, handcuffed and transported to a jail in Dearborn.

"During transportation, Daniel became irate and managed to maneuver his restrained hands under his legs so that they were now in front of his body," deportation Officer Trent Horky wrote in a court filing Wednesday. "Daniel violently kicked, punched and threw his body into (the) partition that divided his backseat bench from the (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officer who was driving."

Daniels broke the Plexiglas partition, grabbed a shard, held it like a knife and started waving it at the officer, according to Horky. Daniel threatened to kill the officer, who was trying to drive the car, Horky wrote.

The officer managed to arrive at the Dearborn Police Department.

"Daniel made multiple attempts to spit at ICE officers and successfully did spit on one ICE officer," Horky wrote.

He continued to kick, fight, spit and wave the broken Plexiglas at officers until they disarmed him by using pepper spray, according to court records.

Daniel was restrained and taken to the St. Clair County Jail.