DEARBORN, Mich. – A Dearborn family is making a final push to stop the deportation of a 61-year-old father of six who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since October.
Jad Salamey, an immigration and civil rights attorney for CAIR Michigan and attorney for Abdelouahid Aouchiche, said he plans to file a petition for an emergency stay of removal.
It’ll be filed with the Board of Immigration Appeals in the coming days.
“He’s in imminent threat of being deported,” Salamey said.
More than 1,000 people have signed a Change.org petition in support of Aouchiche staying in the country.
Salamey said those signatures will be included in the petition submitted to the Board of Immigration Appeals
Aouchiche is a husband and father of six children, four of whom are his biological children. He’s been in this country for roughly 30 years.
He’s been separated from his family for nearly three months after ICE detained him on a removal order.
Something Salamey said his client had been fighting and appealing for years.
Salamey said ICE agents grabbed Aouchiche before he could walk into his mosque for morning prayer with his son.
The attorney said the 61-year-old is being kept in Baldwin, Michigan.
Salamey said Aouchiche’s detention has taken a mental and financial toll on his family.
“Now, without his presence, it’s been hard for his wife to go to work, make ends meet,” Salamey said. “The family has fallen behind on bills, and they’re at high risk of losing their home.”
The attorney explained that the family has had financial difficulties because Aouchiche’s wife is a doula.
He used to stay home with the kids while she was at work.
But now that he’s not here to stay with the kids, it’s made it difficult for the wife to do her job.
And an emergency stay of removal, Salamey explained, “is a request to the Board of Immigration Appeals to issue an order stating that ICE cannot deport him until his pending motions before the Board of Immigration Appeals are resolved.”
Salamey said two motions are currently pending before the board for his client, including one involving Aouchiche’s legal status.
Local 4 reached out to ICE on Tuesday and Wednesday seeking comment on Aouchiche’s case.
We’re still waiting to receive a response.
Local 4 also reached out to the Board of Immigration Appeals, asking how frequently emergency stays of removal are granted and about this situation.
In an emailed statement, Kathryn Mattingly, press secretary for the Office of Policy at EOIR, said in part:
“Statute and regulation provide certain confidentiality protections to respondents in proceedings before the Executive Office for Immigration Review. EOIR does not provide speculative responses.”
Friends of the family have set up a GoFundMe.