YOUNGSTOWN Howland man facing deportation requests help from federal judge

YOUNGSTOWN -- A Trumbull County man is asking a federal judge to order his release from jail while he fights to keep from being deported.
An attorney for Samir Saleh filed a lawsuit this week in U.S. District Court, Youngstown, against Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas Altiere and Gregory A. White, U.S. attorney for the northern district of Ohio.
The suit says Saleh, 46, of Howland, was arrested at his home Nov. 3 by Howland Township police and was notified that he was in violation of a previous probation order requiring him to pay a fine and court costs. He was then placed in the Trumbull County Jail.
As a result of the probation violation charge, Saleh was charged by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement with violating a supervisory detention and removal order.
The federal agency placed a removal detainer against Saleh began proceedings to deport him to either occupied Palestine, the West Bank, Gaza or Israel, the suit says.
It says that upon examination of Warren Municipal Court records, it was found that the fine and costs in question had been paid, so there was no probation violation. The deportation proceeding still is pending, though, and he remains in the county jail, the suit says.
Saleh asks that the federal court order his immediate release from jail while the deportation proceedings are pending.