Jan. 21--Ibrahim Parlak, a Michigan restaurant owner and Turkish immigrant who has fought deportation for more than a decade, is getting congressional help.
Parlak and Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., signed a joint statement Wednesday at Parlak's restaurant Cafe Gulistan in Harbert, Mich., urging Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, to advance a bill to the House.
Upton previously introduced legislation that would request a report on Parlak's immigration status from the Department of Homeland Security to keep him in the country for the duration of this Congress.
Upton and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., have also written a letter asking Jeh Johnson, Homeland Security secretary, and Catherine Pincheck, Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief counsel, not to oppose the motion to reopen his case.
Parlak said he is grateful for the help but wants the madness to end.
Upton said he and Schakowsky are doing all they can to keep him in the country.
"He's about as disarming a person as you could ever find," Upton said. "It's just crazy that this continues. He's living the American Dream."
Martin Dzuris, a Czech immigrant and longtime friend of Parlak, said Upton's work with Parlak is encouraging.
"It's a positive feeling that a representative is representing his constituent," he said.
Parlak is seeking relief under the U.N. Convention Against Torture, which prevents the deportation of a person to a country where they are likely to be tortured. Parlak said he fears that if his 90-day stay of deportation from Homeland Security runs out in March and he is sent to Turkey, government officials will arrest him at the airport upon his arrival and kill him.
When Parlak first appealed his deportation in 2004, it was denied because at the time Turkey was improving its human rights record during a bid to join the European Union. However, Turkey's bid was later denied.
Robert Carpenter, Parlak's attorney, said he will introduce new evidence and expert testimony that Parlak would be tortured if sent back Turkey. He is hopeful the actions taken by Upton and Schakowsky could spur a groundswell of congressional support.
"As aspiring leaders of human rights, I think we need to walk the walk," he said.
Homeland Security has until Feb. 11 to oppose the motion to reopen Parlak's case.
Parlak fled Turkey for the U.S. in 1991 after spending 16 months in prison, where he said he was tortured and interrogated over an alleged connection to a 1987 border dispute between the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and Turkish government in which Turkish soldiers were killed. Parlak said he was present when the gun battle began but ran when the shooting started.
After Parlak applied to become a naturalized citizen in 1999, his name was flagged by Homeland Security. Turkey had resentenced Parlak in the firefight, and the U.S. government had since classified the PKK as a terrorist organization in 1997. That meant Parlak could be classified as a terrorist, too.
Homeland Security charged Parlak with lying about his imprisonment and terrorist ties on his green card application in 1994.
An immigration attorney handling Parlak's case checked the "no" box next to a question about serving prison time because he had been a political prisoner of the military, Carpenter said.
The years of waiting and thousands of dollars in legal fees have worn Parlak down. He said he needs every penny to send his daughter to college. The case has cost him $20,000 in the past two months alone.
"The United States has become my home, and they're destroying that," he said. "Leaving my daughter without a father. Who is benefiting from that? Why? That's not what this country is about."
mmccall@tribpub.com
