20-year deportation case finally comes to an end

BERRIEN COUNTY, Mich. -- A long running immigration case finally comes to an end for a Berrien County restaurant owner, threatened with deportation for nearly 20 years.

"Finally, there is a day that we can look forward and finally there is a way out of darkness," stated Ibrahim Parlak.

Ibrahim Parlak owns Cafe Gulistan, on Red Arrow Highway in Harbert, serving traditional Kurdish food from his home country of Turkey.

For 20 years Parlak feared deportation, because he was once jailed for his opposition to the Turkish government and said that he would be tortured if he was forced to return.

A judge has now agreed, so Parlak's new mission is to become a U.S. citizen, like his daughter who was born here.

"That's my country and I want to become a citizen of it. And most importantly, it's not just about receiving a passport or a piece of paper with the stamp says you are a citizen. That's how I feel right from the beginning anyway. That's most important thing for me," explained Parlak.

In 2005, the Department of Homeland Security issued a deportation order against Parlak but has now dropped the case because an immigration judge recently agreed that Parlak would likely be tortured, for being a Kurdish dissident, if he was sent back to Turkey.