YOUNGSTOWN, OH (WKBN/CNN) - It'd been years since Amer Adi last saw his mother.
In her arms now, Adi was a broken man, deported back to Jordan the country he left nearly four decades ago to pursue his American dream.
He became a reputable figure in his Ohio community, bringing in business and employing locals.
But last week, Adi was deported on charges that his first marriage in the U.S. was fraudulent.
It's a claim Adi and his first wife still deny.
"What happened is unjust, not right, and everyone back there knows that,” Adi said. “What the Trump Administration is doing is something inexplicable. You cannot even explain it."
Adi, the successful businessman and father of four, is credited with creating jobs and revitalizing downtown Youngstown, OH.
Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan described Adi as a "pillar" of their community.
"To watch these families get ripped apart is the most heartbreaking thing any American citizen could ever see,” Ryan said. “Because you are for these families, it doesn't mean you are not for a secure border, it doesn't mean you are not for making sure that drugs don't get in the country, it doesn't mean you are not for throwing people out of the country who are felons and violent criminals.
"I am for all those things, but I am for a humane pathway for good people," Ryan said.
But Adi’s visa expired in the early 1990s.
Through proposed legislation specific to Adi, Ryan was able to secure consecutive stays of a 2009 deportation order.
Adi said he did have a valid work permit though and paid taxes.
Immigration officials said Adi's case had undergone multiple reviews and held that Adi did not have the legal status to remain in the country.
But with the Trump presidency came a crackdown on illegal immigration.
Tens of thousands have been rounded up by immigration and customs agents.
According to Human Rights Watch, many like Adi are deeply rooted in their communities with no criminal convictions.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said it is only enforcing immigration policy, and that no one is exempt.
Adi said he is still in shock and that he is no longer welcomed in the America he believed in.
“I won't let them, I'm going to keep the fight going," Adi said. "I miss my wife, and the kids I miss Youngstown. I miss everybody."
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