Kurdish Chef Battles to Stay in Michigan
Townspeople, Congress fight to keep Ibrahim Parlak in Michigan. US wants to deport him because of ties to terrorism.
About a quarter-century ago Ibrahim Parlak left Turkey and moved to the small West Michigan resort town of Harbert.
But in 2004 Homeland Security officials said Parlak had lied on his citizenship application and had been part of a group the U.S. recognized as a terrorist organization – a half dozen years after the Kurd had moved to Michigan.
The government ordered Parlak deported.
And then people in Harbert rallied around him, creating a legal defense fund for Parlak.
Former U.S. Senator Carl Levin wrote a personal bill each year to make Parlak a permanent resident.
But Levin retired, and suddenly Parlak says immigration officials in Detroit have taken a new, harder line with him.
Parlak tells WDET’s Quinn Klinefelter federal officials have ordered him to report to Detroit today but will not tell him why.
Here’s more on Parlak’s story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4201972
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-wasteful-case-against-ibrahim-parlak
