KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) – A respected doctor who has been living in America for nearly 40 years finds himself in jail after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took him from his Kalamazoo, Michigan home in handcuffs.
Lukasz Niec is sitting in a jail cell with no idea of when, or if, he will be free to return to his patients and his family.
“In 1979, my parents were both doctors left Poland and took two suitcases and two small children, my brother was five and I was six and they came here for a better life for their kids,” said Iwona Niec-Villaire Saturday.
Now, the siblings are in their mid-40s, she is an attorney, he is a doctor — they have been in America for four decades on a permanent green card.
“He doesn’t even speak Polish,” Niec-Villaire said.
On Tuesday, as Niec was enjoying a day off with his tween girls at his home on the lake in this exclusive neighborhood near Kalamazoo, three ICE officers came to his home, told him he was being taken into custody and took him to jail.
“The question I get asked all the time is ‘Why do you think this happened?’ I just really don’t know,” said Niec-Villaire.
ICE will not comment on the case and has held no hearings. A bond hearing may not come until February, and it is unlikely it will be granted, according to immigration law experts.
“Until this gets heard, which could be up to six months, he could be stuck in a prison cell and not helping and being with his family,” said Niec-Villaire.
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