Former Detroit Iraqi mob lieutenant Najah (Jaguar Nick) Konja recently secured a reprieve from deportation back to Baghdad with proof of a permanent Green Card that awarded him amnesty via a court filing known as a “212” motion. Konja has been a vocal leader for those targeted by the Trump administration’s hardline immigration enforcement push, doing multiple interviews with the local and national press regarding the hot-button issue from inside prison walls. Back in the summer, the 55-year old Konja was one of hundreds of Christian Iraqi-natives living in the United States with criminal records hit with deportation orders and detained by the federal government. Most remain behind bars awaiting a decision by a federal judge on the constitutionality of returning people to their home country if it’s likely they will become victims of religious persecution. Nicknamed for his choice of automobile, Konja was busted for narcotics trafficking in 1989 and did two decades behind bars, having been indicted and convicted by both the feds and the state of Michigan. He was released from federal prison in 2010 and has been clean ever since. The Konja family arrived in Detroit from Baghdad in 1977. In the 1980s, Konja was a high-ranking member of young, swaggering drug kingpin Harry Kalasho’s inner circle. Konja was with Kalasho in February 1989 when the handsome, charismatic 25-year old crime lord was killed gangland-style by a rival in the midst of a turf war that raged in Detroit’s Iraqi underworld at the time.
