Just days ago, the GOP-controlled House Judiciary subcommittee passed a “private immigration” bill that should have temporarily halted the imminent deportation of Amer "Al” Adi Othman, an Ohio dad and businessman who faced being torn from his family despite having no criminal record. It was a major step, and one that should have secured his immediate release while Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reviewed his case.
But his family and advocates, including Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan and former American Immigration Lawyers Association president David Leopold, began to worry when federal immigration officials refused to release Amer from detention. Their fears were realized after ICE went ahead and deported the dad after nearly four decades in the U.S., in what Congressman Ryan calls “a highly irregular rebuke of Congressional authority”:
Imprisoned at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, Ohio, and engaging in a hunger strike, he was told around 8 p.m. that he was being deported and by 10:45 p.m., he was gone.
"In a highly irregular rebuke of Congressional authority by ICE, Amer Othman was ripped from his four daughters, his wife and the country that he has called home for over 30 years," Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, said in a statement of the businessman.
"Amer was a pillar of the community and brought commerce to a downtown that craved investment. He hired members of our community. He paid taxes. He did everything right. There are violent criminals walking the streets, yet our government wasted our precious resources incarcerating him."
Congressman Ryan had invited Amer to be his guest to Donald Trump’s State of the Union address this week. Instead, the legislator kept the seat that was supposed to belong to the dad empty. “Today, my guest seat at the SOTU will remain empty in honor of Amer Othman,” he tweeted, “and all those individuals being heartlessly targeted by the Trump Administration who are American in every sense of the word. We should pursue violent criminals, not those working for a better life.”
Amer was detained earlier this month when he tried to follow the rules by going to his scheduled appointment with ICE. But in the wake of Trump unleashing his mass deportation agents, once-routine check-ins have become anything but routine. When Amer, accompanied by Congressman Ryan, Leopold, and other advocates arrived at the meeting, Leopold said that “the first thing out of their mouth was, ‘We’re not going to beat around the bush. We’re going to take him into custody’”:
Adi, who has never been convicted of a crime, was accused by immigration officials of having a "sham" marriage with his first wife, who stated in a signed affidavit that she married him so he could stay in the country.
However, that woman eventually recanted the statement.
Acknowledging that Congress is welcome to pass legislation that would assist indivdiuals such as Adi, ICE spokesperson Khaalid Walls told the Daily News that his case has "undergone exhaustive judicial review" before immigration courts, federal appeals courts and U.S. district court and by ICE itself.
Officials only allowed Amer to say goodbye to his family over the phone before placing him onto a flight to Jordan, a country he hasn’t called home in years. Remember, when Trump tells you he’s targeting so-called “bad hombres” for arrest, he’s lying to you. Instead, he and his mass deportation thugs are carrying out an ethnic cleansing vision that is claiming immigrants like Amer by the thousands and leaving behind a trail of broken lives.
“It's a sad day,” Leopold said, “because rather than use resources to go after 'bad hombres', the Trump administration is focusing on families, business people like Amer Adi, students, moms and dads … we will find a way to bring him back. Legally, they can deport him, they can banish him, but they can't take his American spirit.”