(Crankers) By the time you’re done reading this, you’ll probably ask yourself why was this person in America in the first place!
North Texas Muslim community leader Marwan Marouf will be deported after an immigration judge denied his request for voluntary departure. Judge Abdias E. Tida cited donations Marouf made to the Holy Land Foundation, a U.S. nonprofit labeled a terrorist organization by DHS after the Sept. 11 attacks. Marouf’s lawyers argued he faces urgent health risks. I guess he’ll have to get health care where he ends up.
A longtime PR and fundraising director for the Muslim-American Society in Dallas, Marouf has been in ICE custody since September. Initially charged with overstaying his visa, he was later accused by DHS of soliciting funds for a terrorist group.
His attorneys sought post-conclusion voluntary departure, which would have let him stay in the U.S. up to 60 days after release and reapply for legal entry from Jordan, while also addressing his Brugada syndrome.
Tida denied the request, ruling Marouf ineligible under federal law and undeserving of such relief.
“The court finds that even if the respondent were statutorily eligible, the court finds that he does not merit discretion, irrespective of any positive equities that he may have exhibited are considering the gravity of the evidence in the record,” Tida said.
Marouf will be deported to Jordan within two weeks, according to DHS, but no set date was provided.
