After a trying legal battle of over twenty years, a Dearborn
couple that fled to the U.S. due to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait received good
news recently as their case was re-opened by the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Ghassan Aboufakhr (C) with attorney Nabih Ayad (R) and attorney Zeina Makki at a press conference in January. File photo

Nahed and Ghassan Aboufakhr, twenty-plus year natives of
Dearborn who came to the U.S. in 1990, will apply for the adjustment of their
status before the immigration court in Detroit in July, with hopes of receiving
their Green Card and the right to remain in Dearborn with their four children,
who are American citizens.

In January, their departure seemed imminent, but an
outpouring of community support and media coverage from The Arab American News
helped keep their case in the spotlight.

The Aboufakhrs were originally evacuated and airlifted to by
the U.S. to Michigan. Most of those who were brought to the U.S. from Kuwait
under similar circumstances were able to obtain their Green Card through a
private Congressional bill, but the couple was mistakenly left off and put into
deportation proceedings in February of 1996.

The couple had their last hearing before the Detroit
Immigration Judge in January of 2000, where their representative wrongly
withdrew their application for relief and accepted voluntary departure on their
behalf.  The immigration judge gave
the couple one year to deport.  

Terrified that they would be ripped away from their young
children and community for a second time, the couple did not deport and instead
sought new counsel and immigration expert, Attorney Nabih H. Ayad of
Canton.  The Aboufahkrs remained
clients of Attorney Ayad since 2000 until the present during which they faced
numerous obstacles, including the detention of Ghassan Aboufakhr by immigration
on two occasions, given a departure date to leave the United States numerous
times, and most recently told to deport by January of 2011 before receiving the
good news.