HARBERT, Mich. (AP) — A southwestern Michigan cafe owner who the U.S. government says hid his ties to a group labeled a terrorist organization has been granted a 90-day extension of a deferral that has kept him from being deported.
The Kalamazoo Gazette reports Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security gave Ibrahim Parlak the extension Wednesday. His 2-year deportation deferral was to expire at midnight Thursday.
Parlak runs Café Gulistan in Berrien County’s Harbert.
He immigrated in 1991 after being convicted in Turkey of supporting the Kurdish separatist movement. Parlak has said torture was used to gather evidence against him in that case.
Parlak’s attorney, Robert Carpenter, is seeking to have the deportation deferred permanently and has filed a motion with the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals to have the case reopened.
