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(KRT) - An immigrant
owner of a popular small-town Michigan restaurant
faces a deportation hearing Monday at U.S.
Immigration Court in Detroit, a pivotal step in a
case that has aroused national interest.
Ibrahim Parlak, 42, a Turkish Kurd accused by the
federal government of ties to terrorists in the
1980s, is fighting to remain in his adopted country,
where he has built a thriving business as the owner
of the Cafe Gulistan restaurant in Harbert, Mich.
Parlak is expected to testify during the
administrative hearing, which is expected to last
two days. The hearing is to determine whether Parlak
should be deported and will be held before an
immigration judge, Elizabeth Hacker.
Parlak was arrested in late July on immigration
charges and has been held at the Calhoun County Jail
in Battle Creek, Mich.
In 2003, Parlak was found eligible for deportation
for allegedly providing false answers on his green
card application and for being an alleged
"persecutor" of the Turkish people, one of his
attorneys said. Parlak was taken into custody in
July when the government determined he was
deportable as an aggravated felon after he was
resentenced in a decades-old terrorism-related
murder case in Turkey.
The government filed three additional charges in
mid-October alleging that he had engaged in
"terrorist activity."
The government accused Parlak of disguising his
involvement in a 1988 firefight at the
Syrian-Turkish border that left two Turkish border
guards dead. He also was accused of having links at
the time with the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, a
resistance group opposed to Turkey's treatment of
ethnic Kurds.
Despite being convicted in 1990 in a Turkish state
security court for his role in the border incident
and involvement with the PKK, Parlak has maintained
his innocence and said Turkish jailers tortured him
into incriminating statements.
He served 17 months of a 4-year, 2-month sentence by
a Turkish court. After he was sentenced, the
prosecutor appealed the term as being too lenient.
It wasn't until 2003 that Parlak provided the
Turkish court with a statement on the case, a
necessary step to complete the resentencing. He was
resentenced in March but informed he would not have
to serve additional jail time.
During interviews last summer with The Chicago
Tribune, Parlak said he abandoned ties to the PKK a
decade before the organization was added to the U.S.
list of terrorist groups. He also said he truthfully
disclosed his past to U.S. immigration authorities
before he was granted asylum in 1992.
"It never crossed my mind after all those years,
this could happen," Parlak said. "It doesn't make
any sense to me."
Jay Marhoefer, one of Parlak's attorneys, said the
government is applying "Orwellian" and "Kafkaesque"
interpretations of laws and statutes in order to
attempt to deport Parlak.
"I don't think any reasonable person believes
deporting Mr. Parlak constitutes a win in the war on
terror," Marhoefer said.
Government officials have insisted that Parlak
should be deported.
"I'm sure he's a great host, and he makes a great
meal, very gracious in the community, but he is in
fact a murderer," Robin Baker, Detroit field office
director for the Homeland Security Department's
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the
Tribune in September.
Immigration officials declined further comment last
week.
Parlak has received strong support in the Harbert
area, where his 7-year-old, U.S.-born daughter lives
with her mother. Up to 60 supporters gather weekly
at potluck suppers at Parlak's restaurant. Many are
expected to attend the hearing.
© 2004, Chicago Tribune.
http://www.chicagotribune.com
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