ICE to Deport Immigrant for 'Sham' Marriage That Was Real, Ex-Wife Says

Even though Amer Othman’s first wife swore under oath she was compelled to sign a misleading statement, it’s the basis for him getting thrown out of the U.S.

KELLY WEILL
ELISHA BROWN
01.19.18 5:14 AM ET

Two immigration officers approached Amer Adi Othman’s ex-wife outside her home one morning in April 1990 with a form to sign. Scared of the two strange men, she signed it quickly and returned to her two children inside.

Nearly 30 years later, the form is at the heart of the government’s case to deport Othman.

Othman, a 57-year-old Youngstown, Ohio man, was detained Tuesday and scheduled for deportation to his native Jordan. A father of four, Othman is married to a U.S. citizen, and is beloved in his Ohio community. He has followed immigration law to the letter, his lawyer says. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement accuses him of entering a sham marriage nearly 40 years ago based on the form his ex-wife signed. But the woman swore under oath in 2007 that she’d signed the form under coercion from officers whom she believed “wanted me to say what they wanted to hear.”

Othman’s family said they haven’t been able to talk to him since Tuesday night.

“He had no visitation rights. That was a little bit worrisome for us because he is on a hunger strike. We’ve been worried about his health,” his daughter Lina Adi told The Daily Beast after flying to Ohio from Colorado once she found out about her father’s detention.

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