An Iraqi national charged with attacking anti-Muslim activist Jake Lang during a protest in Dearborn, Michigan, has been revealed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be a convicted murderer living in the country illegally. Abbas Abdoush, 57, was arrested by immigration agents and now faces deportation after being released from jail on a tether, having been charged with assault, battery and malicious destruction of property over the 2 August assault. The case has drawn attention to the intersection of immigration enforcement and local policing, particularly as Dearborn police say they did not cooperate with federal immigration authorities in his arrest.

Video footage appeared to show Abdoush among a group beating Lang, 31, who had been chanting anti-Muslim slogans near a religious celebration and was previously pardoned for his role in the Capitol riot. ICE said Abdoush was legally admitted to the US in 1992 and became a lawful permanent resident, but lost that status following a 1999 conviction for murdering a woman by deliberately running her over with a vehicle in Detroit in January 1998; he served from 1999 to 2014 in prison. He was ordered removed from the US in 2022 but is appealing, with the case still pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals, and he is now held at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan.