Updated

Lawyers say they've exhausted efforts to slow down or suspend the deportation of Iraqi nationals from the U.S. after a court refused to set aside a decision from one of its three-judge panels.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday there's no interest in taking another look at the case.

The lawsuit was filed in 2017 after the U.S. government began arresting hundreds of Iraqi nationals to enforce deportation orders. They had been allowed to stay in the U.S. for years because Iraq wouldn't accept them. The lawsuit's goal was to suspend deportations and allow people to make new arguments about their safety in Iraq.

Detroit federal Judge Mark Goldsmith made a series of decisions in favor of the immigrants, and hundreds have benefited. But the appeals court said in December that Goldsmith exceeded his authority.