It’s a big victory for Southwest Michigan restaurateur Ibrahim Parlak.
The Kurdish immigrant has been fighting deportation to his native Turkey since 2004, and on Friday, the federal government’s deadline to appeal a judge’s ruling allowing him to stay in the U.S. came and went with no appeal.
Parlak’s representatives say on September 24, a Detroit immigration judge held that Parlak has shown he will likely be tortured if returned to Turkey. That’s the same ruling an immigration judge issued in 2018. However, unlike in 2018, the judge’s 2024 decision granting Parlak relief was not appealed by the government within the 30 days it had to do so. This makes the September 24 ruling final, and Parlak gets to stay in the United States, barring further attempts to deport him.
The judge’s ruling on September 24 found the Turkish government engages in illegal kidnapping of dissidents and that Turkey has a poor human rights record. Parlak, as a dissident of the Turkish government, would therefore be in danger if sent back to Turkey.
Parlak says he is grateful for the incredible support he’s received over the decades, and he specifically thanked partners in Congress who have fought for him. They include late Senator Carl Levin, retired Congressman Fred Upton, and current Congressman Tim Walberg.
The government granted Parlak asylum in the early 1990s, but in post-9/11 security sweeps, he was taken into custody by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He’s been fighting ever since.
Parlak owns Cafe Gulistan in Harbert.
