Every year on New Year’s Eve, Asif Amin Cheema’s five children rushed to wake him after he fell asleep before midnight, all vying to be the first to greet him in the new year.
Cheema, 63, the owner of Best Sub #2 on North Avenue in Humboldt Park, usually went to bed early to prepare for the next day at work, though his children never wanted him to miss the holiday.
This year, his five kids prepared for his deportation to Pakistan, which was slated for Thursday evening, according to his family.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon at the Rosemont Blue Line station parking lot, Cheema’s family announced that they had filed a lawsuit and were calling on local elected officials to intervene in a last-ditch effort to keep him in the U.S.
“No family should have to stand at a podium like this just to make sure their loved ones have access to medications, legal counsel and basic dignity,” said his daughter Rabia Amin. “Until our government recognizes the humanity behind these cases, families like mine will continue to pay the price.”
She confirmed later Thursday that her father had left the Broadview ICE processing facility and was on his way to a deportation flight. She also said that the motion to stay his removal was rejected by a federal judge. It comes after he was hospitalized when he collapsed last month as he was set to board a deportation flight at O’Hare.
Cheema was detained by federal agents outside a grocery store in Addison on Sept. 17. Rabia Amin said he had been in the process of updating his immigration status and setting up green card interviews when he was arrested.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals initially halted removal orders for Cheema earlier in December. On Monday the court ruled that his removal order could proceed, even before his deportation appeal is decided.
Federal prosecutors have accused Cheema of entering the country illegally in 1989, but he has committed no other crimes. In a previous court filing, the Justice Department said Cheema has been subject to a final order of removal since 1993; Rabia Amin has said a previous attorney of Cheema’s failed to notify him about the order.
He was set to be deported last month but collapsed at the airport and was taken to Resurrection Medical Center, according to Rabia Amin. He has a history of heart disease, diabetes, glaucoma and was set to be tested for cancer due to internal bleeding the week he was detained.
“Any allegations Asif Amin Cheema was denied medication are FALSE,” a DHS spokesperson wrote in a statement Thursday. “Cheema received all medications and received prompt and appropriate medical attention, as evidenced by his ambulance transport and hospital evaluation.”
His family fears for his safety and they allege he was denied access to phone calls. When they called Cheema at the facility where he was being held, agents told the family that he didn’t want to speak to them, though he had told them he wasn’t allowed to make calls.
“He’s the roof on our house,” said his eldest daughter, Hamna Amin.
The suit also accuses the federal government of subjecting Cheema to three “mock deportations” and withholding his medications for at least a three-day stretch. It seeks a temporary restraining order against the feds requiring them to give him access to his prescribed medications and to give him a medical evaluation.
When he was moved to the immigration processing facility in Broadview on Wednesday night, an officer told him his medications weren’t transferred with him and he wouldn’t have access before being deported Thursday, according to the suit. It also said agents have pressured him to sign deportation papers while his case is ongoing.
“The Constitution does not permit civil detention under conditions of medical neglect,” the suit says.
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