Family fighting to bring Humboldt Park sub shop owner home after he was deported to Pakistan
The family of a Humboldt Park sub shop owner is fighting to bring him back to Chicago, after he was deported to Pakistan earlier this month.
Asif Amin Cheema's daughters said he had a valid work permit and was scheduled for a green card interview when he was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in September.
He originally was supposed to be deported in November, but suffered chest pains and was hospitalized just before boarding his flight. After an appeals court later rejected a bid to let him stay, he was deported to Pakistan on New Year's Day.
For the first time since then, Cheema is talking about what happened when he was detained.
His family said he was doing everything right when immigration agents arrested their father on his way to work in September. They're questioning how a decades-old deportation order could suddenly be enforced, and what happens next.
"My life's really, really messed up," Cheema said from Pakistan. "I very, very miss everybody. I can't say nothing, because I'm emotional."
For decades, Cheema ran Best Sub #2 in Humboldt Park. His family said he has a valid work permit and was waiting for a green card interview, but in September he was arrested on his way to the restaurant
"My second family is in the Humboldt Park," he said. "I think all the time, what I do wrong? What I did?"
An attorney helped him with his immigration status, but never removed a deportation order on his record from the early 1990s; an order his family said they didn't know existed.
"We were doing things the right way, and this is what happens and he still gets arrested?" said his daughter, Rabia Amin.
After spending three months being shuffled between detention facilities in Chicago and Indian, He was deported to Pakistan on Jan. 1.
"I thought maybe my dad was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and that's not the case. It's everyone. They are coming after hard-working people," Amin said.
Cheema said he's struggling physically, battling a heart issue, and emotionally, not knowing when he'll see his family again.
"Everybody love me. I know everybody love me. I love everybody," he said.
His family said they are now running his longtime business in his place, and will continue fighting to bring him home.
"I know he came to America because he wanted a better life for his future and for his kids, and so I think that guilt … that guilt of my dad is in this situation, because he made these sacrifices for us," Amin said. "Expecting a family to be separated by thousands of miles and borders apart, it's not right and it's not fair."
Cheema's family said, on the same day he was deported, they filed a civil lawsuit over how he was treated while he was detained. They say he faced "mock" deportations, and was denied access to his attorney and his medications.
They're now waiting to see if a judge will step in and review the case. The Department of Homeland Security denied the family's allegations regarding his treatment while in custody.