LAWRENCE — An attorney for a chemistry instructor who is fighting deportation to Bangladesh says her office is considering all possible options to get him released from a Hawaii detention center and home to his wife and children in Kansas.
Rekha Sharma-Crawford said Tuesday that immigration officials could voluntarily return Syed Ahmed Jamal to the mainland U.S., but if they don’t, her firm will ask a federal judge to order his return.
Jamal was detained in Hawaii after being removed from a plane late Monday that was flying him back to Bangladesh. Sharma-Crawford says he was put on the plane early Monday without his attorneys’ knowledge before a federal immigration panel issued a second stay.
Jamal, whose wife and three children are U.S. citizens, has lived in Kansas for 30 years. His supporters have been fighting deportation since he was arrested at his Lawrence home on Jan. 24.
10:40 a.m.
Attorneys for a Kansas chemistry instructor who is fighting deportation to Bangladesh say he is currently being held at a Honolulu detention center.
Immigration officials put 55-year-old Syed Ahmed Jamal on a flight to his native land on Monday before a federal immigration board issued a new stay of deportation.
Sharma-Crawford Attorneys at Law posted on its Facebook page that Jamal was taken off the plane when it stopped in Honolulu to refuel.
It was not immediately clear what happens next for Jamal, who has lived in Kansas for 30 years. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him at his home in Lawrence on Jan. 24.
Jamal’s wife and three children are U.S. citizens.
9:45 a.m.
A chemistry instructor who has lived in Kansas for 30 years was already flying back to his native Bangladesh when a federal immigration board issued a new stay of deportation that his supporters hope will ow him to return to the U.S..
It was a dramatic day on Monday for the family and supporters of 55-year-old Syed Ahmed Jamal, who has been battling deportation since Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him Jan. 24 at the home in Lawrence where he lives with his wife and three children, who are all U.S. citizens.
A federal immigration judge early Monday removed a temporary stay he issued last week for Jamal, who was being held in a detention center in El Paso, Texas. His attorneys immediately sought a new stay from the Board of Immigration Appeals in Virginia, which granted one later Monday, but not before Jamal was put on a flight to Bangladesh. His attorney, Rekha Sharma-Crawford, said that plane was scheduled to refuel in Hawaii and she was hopeful he would be taken off the plane and be sent back to the U.S.
