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The congressman's office coordinated with the Aldoud family, US and Iraqi officials, and funeral homes in both countries to arrange transportation for the remains of Aldoud in Michigan. The Chaldean Community Foundation, an organization advocating for the rights of Iraqi Christians living in the United States, funded the trip, said Levin's office.
"Jimmy's death was a preventable, unnecessary and predictable tragedy," said Levin. "My only hope is that Jimmy's family feels a sense of relief now that his body can be buried in his home country, next to his mother."
Aldaoud and his family legally arrived in the United States as refugees in 1979, when he was six months old, CNN officials told Immigration and Customs earlier this month. . His parents and three siblings became American citizens, although he never did.
When he was deported to Iraq in June, he had never visited the country, had no family or friends, and did not speak Arabic, said Levin's office.
His body was found in August in a Baghdad apartment that he shared with another US-Iraqi deportee. His lawyer, Edward Bajoka, said that Aldaoud could not find insulin in the country, which caused his death.
ICE officials said that during his deportation, he had been "supplied with drugs to ensure continuity of care".
Aldaoud is expected to be buried at a private burial later this week, the congressional bureau said.
"Jimmy was a sweet person with a good heart," said Aldaoud sisters in his release. "He loved our mother and we are reassured to know that he will be lying next to her."
"We hope that Jimmy's story will enable people to understand that we should not be deporting dead people abroad."
Aldaoud had already been arrested by ICE
Aldaoud had many criminal backgrounds, said an ICE official in Detroit at CNN, which implied "no less than 20 convictions between 1998 and 2017".
ICE officials told CNN that he had received deportation orders since 2005, although he spent some time in the custody of ICE in the early 2000s while incarcerated. He was again detained in 2017 and spent 18 months in an ICE detention center in Ohio before his release in December 2018.
He was arrested by local law enforcement in April for stealing a car, and ICE arrested him again, Bajoka said.
According to his lawyer, Aldaoud suffered from several mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, which contributed to his "problems with justice, and ultimately [are] which led to his deportation. "
Sonia Moghe from CNN contributed to this report.
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