On Oct. 20, a chef from North Avenue Falafel was working his side hustle, waiting in the Uber holding lot at O’Hare. Suddenly ICE agents closed the lot’s entrance and exit and starting asked questions. It would take weeks to untangle the answers.
Amr Hassan originally came to the U.S. on a tourist visa. He has since gone through immigration proceedings and received a “cancellation of removal,” which opened a route to a green card. His case is pending.
None of that mattered in the O’Hare Uber lot.
“They asked just two questions,” Hassan said. “‘Are you American citizen?’ If you said yes, ‘Show me an ID,’ and they checked the ID. If you are American citizen, good to go. If you said no, they asked ‘Do you have a green card?’”
It didn’t matter that Hassan has legal status; he didn’t have the paperwork they wanted. Officers told him to step out of his car, searched him, put him in handcuffs and took him to an immigration facility on O’Hare’s campus. That is where his trek through ICE detention began.
Here is the story, according to Hassan:
After a few hours at O’Hare, he was taken to the Broadview detention facility. His personal belongings were confiscated and he was locked in a room designed to hold far fewer people, with the only restroom facilities in plain sight of everyone being held.
“All people I met, they got them with the uniforms on,” he said. “If they are criminals, they will not go to work. I meet them in gas stations uniform, the construction guys, the landscaping guys. I met one, with a kitchen chef uniform. Good people. They work. They have families. They have kids. They have wives. They have homes. Now you think about their kids, what they will do without their dads?”
Hassan said that of the hundreds of people he saw while he was in various detention facilities only a few were women. He estimated it was less than 2%.
On the third day of filthy conditions at Broadview guards woke detainees at 4 a.m. Cuffed at the ankles and waist, Hassan and others were loaded onto a bus and driven to Indianapolis to the airport there. Inside, authorities divided detainees by country of origin. Hassan sat with others from Egypt.
After a few hours Hassan was back in cuffs and bank on a bus. Several hours later he arrived in Kentucky at the Oldham County jail, which functions as an ICE detention center. Finally, more than four days into his detention, he was finally able to contact his family and a lawyer. After five more days in Kentucky, he was once again cuffed and bussed back to the Indianapolis airport. From there he was transported to Brazil, Indiana to the Clay County jail, also serving as an ICE detention center.
“It’s a big business for them, the jails,” he said.
After another six days, Hassan finally had a court hearing.
“I had court online. My attorney got me released for $1,500 because the most important two things is that I came in with a visa and my record is clean,” he said. “I was the only one who was released during the court.”
Hassan was given a court date for his next appearance – in October 2027.
Fifteen days after he was originally detained, Clay County Indiana jailers opened the doors and let him walk out. He was given a bag with his belongings, but his wallet was missing and his cell phone was dead. He had no ID and no way to call home.
“I walked to a McDonald’s. I asked the worker, very nice young man, ‘Can I call my family?’ He give me the store phone. I called my family I told them where I am and I stayed there for four hours while they come to get me,” he said.
Luckily back when this whole ordeal started, the authorities hadn’t impounded Hassan’s car. They allowed his brother to come pick it up with a spare set of keys.
The experience isn’t one that Hassan will soon forget.
“I was very thankful for God and for everybody who helped me. Because many of people I met there for three, four months, they stayed there, moving them from jail to another. I learned a lot, how this life is very precious. Freedom is something you can’t imagine how it’s important,” Hassan said.
Also detained during the federal government’s Operation Midway Blitz was another employee, Nancy Issacs. She was arrested in the restaurant’s parking lot, located at the corner of North and Oak Park Avenues in Chicago. She was deported to Mexico, according to restaurant owner Youssef Salam.
Sidebar #1 – Orders slipped through the cracks
Shortly after Amr Hassan was detained, the owner of the North Avenue Falafel, Youssef Salam, had to decide whether to continue on a planned trip to Egypt. Initially he thought Hassan would be released within a few days.
“I already have ticket. I close the restaurant and I go to see my family,” Salam said. “I was six weeks over there.”
In the confusion, the restaurant’s online ordering system was not taken offline. Several customers ordered and were surprised when they arrived to pick up their food to find the restaurant closed and an “on vacation” sign taped to the door.
Salam wants to make it right with them.
“If they want the same order, we can give them. If they want the money back, we’ll give them back. Whatever they want, we’ll give them,” Salam said.
Sidebar #2 – Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity served at North Avenue Falafel
Last week Egyptian street food dish Koshary (also spelled koshari) was added to UNESCO’s list of humanity’s intangible cultural heritage. Every year countries nominate foods, traditions, dances, and other cultural touchstones to be recognized by this United Nations agency.
If you aren’t headed to Egypt soon, you can get the same dish at North Avenue Falafel. This budget-friendly combo of pasta, rice, black lentils, and fried onions is served with garlic vinegar and tomato sauce to top to your own taste.
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