Michigan Kurd Long Facing Deportation will have Case Reopened

In a rare move by immigration officials, a Michigan man who’s fought against being deported for more than a decade is having his case reopened.

Kurdish chef Ibrahim Parlak came to Michigan from Turkey about a quarter-century ago and was granted asylum.

Then U.S. officials identified a group Parlak had been associated with before coming to Michigan as a terrorist organization, said he had lied about being jailed in Turkey and ordered him deported.

Residents in the Lake Michigan resort town of Harbert where Parlak lives came to his defense, as did members of Michigan’s congressional delegation, who helped him remain in the U.S. by having the deportation order deferred.

Now Immigration officials are granting Parlak’s request to have his case for asylum reopened and see if he can stay in the U.S. under an international law called the Convention Against Torture, which protects refugees from being returned to places where they might be killed.

Parlak says he was tortured in Turkey and would likely face death if he is sent back there.