A respected Michigan doctor of Polish descent has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, even though he has lived in the United States for almost 40 years and has a permanent green card, Wood TV has reported.
Lukasz Niec is a 43-year-old internal medicine doctor in Kalamazoo described by co-workers as a model physician. He arrived with his family from Poland when he was a young boy in 1979, according to his sister, who added that he doesn’t even speak Polish or know any relatives in his native land.
ICE declined to comment on the case and has held no hearings since he was detained last Tuesday. A bond hearing may not come until next month, and it is unlikely it will be granted, according to immigration law experts.
His wife told mlive.com that the arrest came as a complete surprise, but believes it might stem from two misdemeanor convictions when he was in high school, one for destruction of property less than $100 and the other of receiving stolen property.
Court records also show that Niec pleaded guilty to a 2008 operating impaired by liquor offense for which he completed probation, and the conviction was set aside. He was also charged with domestic violence in 2013 and a jury found him not guilty after a trial.
The Hill pointed out that the arrest comes at a sensitive stage of the immigration debate, as the federal government shutdown is at least partially over the issue of continuing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects certain immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.