Omar Ameen was close to getting out.
A refugee accused of killing an Iraqi police officer on behalf of the Islamic State, he was due to be freed after two years in jail on Wednesday when a federal judge in California ruled there was insufficient evidence to extradite him to Iraq.
But in a last-ditch effort to keep Ameen locked up, the U.S. government sicced Immigration and Customs Enforcement on him, dealing a crushing setback to Ameen’s legal team, who had just won their case in extradition court.
