The 7 Investigators are going behind the headlines to take a closer look at the highly-charged immigration debate. Immigration authorities arrested 114 Iraqi nationals in metro Detroit in June.
Some of them have convictions for murders and sexual assault. Others were convicted of less serious crimes, but are still facing deportation. Local families are sharing their stories with Action News.
This is the story of 54-year-old Usama “Sam” Jamil Hamama. He entered the U.S. lawfully as a refugee at age 4. He is married with four children ages 11, 15, 17, and 20.
He has 1988 convictions for felony assault, felony firearm, and carrying a pistol in a motor vehicle. He is a manager/investor in 3 local supermarkets and employs 40 people.
Hamama’s wife, Nahrain Hamama, and his two oldest children, Britanny and Christopher, talked at length with 7 Investigator Heather Catallo. Watch the videos above.
“My dad-- I know isn’t a criminal. I know he made a mistake and he completely took advantage of the second chance he was given,” said 20-year-old Britanny Hamama. “I think this country needs more people like him.”
Brittany Hamama and her siblings, along with their mom, pray for their dad every day at St. Thomas Chaldean Catholic Church in West Bloomfield.
“For the people that know Sam Hamama, they adore him because he’s done so much more good than bad in his life time,” said Hamama’s wife, Nahrain, as she wiped away tears. “He doesn’t deserve to be sent to a country where there’s going to be torture, persecution, genocide. That’s not who we are as Americans to send people there to be murdered, to be persecuted.”
