Karem Tadros stood in a Newark federal courtroom in awe Monday as a prosecutor argued that the government be allowed to put him on a plane to a so-called “third country.”
A drug charge from 17 years ago triggered his recent detention.
The prosecutor did not have a firm plan on a country, but said the government was working on one: Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan? Tadros was born in Egypt and immigrated to the United States, legally, as a young child. The now 39-year-old has lived in the same home in Essex County for over 30 years, he and his lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said.
Tadros is an example of how aggressively the second Trump administration has been deporting residents, some who have been in the country for decades, to places that are not their native land, his lawyer said.
The third country issue arises when a prior court order — like Tadros has — prevents the United States from sending him to his native Egypt because he previously proved he might be tortured.
And why Uzbekistan, a double land-locked country in central Asia? Tadros and Sandoval-Moshenberg, who said they were puzzled, don’t know. President Donald Trump’s mass deportations include more and more third country removals, officials have claimed.
“It almost is (as) if they’re throwing a dart at a map on the wall,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “This is what they’re doing with these cases, they just want to get him onto a plane.”
The judge presiding over the habeas corpus hearing, Evelyn Padin, found in Tadros’ favor since the government could state no concrete plan, and she ordered Tadros to be released, immediately.
It ended a six-week ordeal for Tadros that started with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents knocking on his door and taking him to an immigration jail in Elizabeth.
Even after the judge ordered Tadros released, ICE agents said in court they wanted to fit him with an electronic ankle monitor. No, the judge said, and grabbed a pen and hand wrote on her order that Tadros be released, right there.
Or as Sandoval-Moshenberg called it: “To the sidewalk.”
Tadros finally walked out of the courthouse Monday in clean clothes delivered by his brother. “Wow, that’s when my body just, I felt everything just … the electricity went through my body," he said.
The New Jersey ICE office, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, acknowledged a message seeking comment for this story, but did not yet make one as of Thursday afternoon.
Tadros has been at home since Monday evening, and while his future is uncertain, he’s breathing easier. He said so as he spoke to NJ Advance Media while on a walk near his home enjoying the fresh air.
How did he end up in jail?
When he became a legal adult, Tadros obtained all necessary permissions to stay in the United States, including a work permit, he and his lawyer said.
At the age of 22, the drug charge, for oxycodone, upended his immigration status. He satisfied the criminal case, was detained federally and went to immigration court, where a judge ordered his deportation, his lawyer and court papers show.
However, Tadros successfully argued under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, that he’d suffer physical harm in Egypt, due to the criminal case and his non-religious status as a Muslim, his lawyer said.
An immigration judge stayed the removal and an immigration appeal board upheld it, and ordered him set free with supervision.
“He won his case,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. His legal status was restored, including his work permit. “And he understood that his troubles were over.”
Tadros said he’s lived a regular, law-abiding life and has never missed a required immigration check-in. He has been an entrepreneur for the past decade — working with smaller companies to raise their social media presence.
He said he had never seen an ICE officer, “except on the news.”
On May 7, though, three of them knocked on his front door. His mother answered.
The agents initially asked him to get into their car, then arrested him, Tadros said. He later learned the prior drug case led to the renewal of the deportation effort.
“I kept on saying like, I’ve done my time. I’ve been living my life for 17 years, clean. I haven’t done anything further wrong.”
Tadros said his time in the detention center was, in a word, “misery.” He slept to pass the time, but had no major trouble, he said.
He surprisingly found almost everyone detained was in the same situation. “People took care of each other,” Tadros said.
Sandoval-Moshenberg, who also represents Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, where he was imprisoned, said cases like Tadros’ — which barred removal to his native land — rarely led to actual deportation.
A 2019 study found just 1.6% of such cases ever led to a person being put on a plane, he said.
He told clients: “Don’t worry, that never happens, you’re fine.”
“[Before Trump], even in his first term, that is what we would tell folks,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
Trump has made headlines this term for increased efforts to deport non-citizens.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said the randomness of the countries is troubling, like a plan canceled last month to send deportees to war-torn South Sudan.
Uzbekistan, “is not even on the same continent as Egypt,” he said.
When he finally got to federal court Monday, Tadros said he was encouraged when the judge seemed frustrated and repeatedly challenged the prosecutor, Matthew Mailloux.
“She was tough on him,” Tadros said.
Tadros watched the government’s case fall apart. “It was like they were either unprepared or they knew that they had no reason to keep me,” he said.
Tadros urged anyone with legal status to make sure their paperwork is in order and deadlines are met.
“I want them to understand that even if they have a green card. They are targeting anybody that is a non-citizen with any kind of problem. Like anything.”
In Tadros’ order that set him free, it says that immigration authorities can revisit his deportation within 30 to 60 days, if they have a viable plan to an identified country and go back to court and sway a judge.
If so, Tadros and his lawyer said they are ready.
“First of all, we don’t think there is any country. But if they do, identify one, yes, we will definitely fight that,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
Stories by Kevin Shea
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Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com