Imagine your mother being ripped away from you. Well, two daughters don’t have to imagine it, because that is exactly what happened.
Forty-one-year old JIhan Asker of Warren is a proud Iraqi woman who has called America her home for many, many years - an Iraqi who has been detained, like hundreds of others, caged behind bars like a harden criminals, fearing they’ll be sent back to Iraq.
While they worry, they’re locked away from loved ones, not knowing if, they’ll ever hold them, hug them again.
“I was taken to Battle Creek to Calhoun County Jail and I was gone for 72 days,” says Asker.
She tells 7 Action News she was arrested by nine officers.
Jihan says her stay behind bars was very scary. Her only comfort was the Bible she used as her pillow every night.
Jihan was released Tuesday afternoon and is now out on bond, back with her family.
“She’s the first to be released. The reason she is the first to be released is because, she is the first to have had her case reopened,” says her attorney, George Mann.
We’re told the judge gave her a chance and didn’t hold Jihan’s past against her.
Seventeen years ago, she got in some trouble for passing a bad check, of a few hundred dollars, which was a misdemeanor.
Also, when Jihan was 10-years-old., she didn’t show up for a immigration court hearing. An order of deportation was entered in her absence by an immigration judge.
Sometime last year, Jihan was issued a disturbing the peace citation at her apartment and that has her family worried that she could be taken away from them again.
“That is really a big concern for us,” says Lexy Solyman, Jihan’s youngest daughter.
Her oldest daughter, Leina Solyman, can’t help but be concerned to see her mother who is torn apart.
“Its very painful to see what happened to her, seeing her cry, seeing her hurt,” says Leina Solyman.
Jihan’s legal team says the next step is to prepare her application for a green card. They hope this entire case will be closed in the next several months.
