Will Syed Jamal get out of jail this week? Judge could rule Tuesday

Dozens of supporters of Lawrence scientist Syed A. Jamal have arrived at a federal court hearing Tuesday morning in Kansas City in hopes that a judge might free him from jail.

The Bangladeshi-born Jamal, 55, has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since his Jan. 24 arrest for overstaying his visa.

U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday at the Charles Evans Whittaker Courthouse downtown. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the enforcement of immigration laws, is challenging the court's jurisdiction to rule on the matter.

The father of three U.S. citizen youngsters, Jamal has been a student, researcher and adjunct professor in the Kansas City region for more than 30 years. He was taken into ICE custody in 2012 with expired papers but allowed to stay on orders of supervision, in which Jamal checked in regularly with immigration officials to obtain work permits.

His latest permit extended to October 2018, but that allowance was rescinded by ICE when agents arrested Jamal outside his home on the way to taking his daughter to school.

Returning to his family pending the outcome of his deportation case is "absolutely critical," said the Rev. Eleanor McCormick of Plymouth Congregational Church in Lawrence, where one group of supporters will meet to carpool to the hearing. "It would be just and humane for a vibrant community member with children, who poses no flight risk, be allowed to live at home" in the months it could take for the Board of Immigration Appeals to review his case.

The Board of Immigration Appeals in February issued a temporary stay of deportation while Jamal was in ICE custody on a flight headed to his native country. He has since been held in the Platte County Jail, where he is granted Sunday-only visits with his family separated by glass.

While Ketchmark would have no authority to keep Jamal from being deported, federal judges elsewhere have ruled in favor of petitions to release detainees while cases are adjudicated.

In late January, Judge Katherine B. Forrest of the Southern District of New York ordered the release of activist and family man Ravidath Ragbir in light of what Forrest termed an arrest "without a moment's notice" that denied him "the freedom to say goodbye."

Jamal's story went viral after friends and family launched an online petition drive for a stay of his deportation. The Change.org site had garnered 108,000 as of Monday.

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, a Kansas Republican, has introduced a so-called private bill that would grant permanent residency to Jamal and his wife, who also is Bangladeshi. Such bills affecting a specific party rarely pass.

This story was originally published March 19, 2018 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Will Syed Jamal get out of jail this week? Judge could rule Tuesday."