Aber Kawas’s father was deported for property fraud

Aber Kawas, a Palestinian-American activist and Democratic Socialist, secured a victory in the New York State Senate District 12 race in Queens on Tuesday night. For over a decade, she has highlighted her father’s deportation from the United States as a personal and political narrative, alleging it was driven by anti-Muslim prejudice and government harshness.

However, court records reveal a more complex story, omitting that her father was a convicted felon.

The Post has discovered that Abdelkareem Kawas, a Jordanian national, entered the United States in 1989 on a tourist visa and never departed. He was later convicted of felony fraud in two different states before being deported by federal authorities.

Throughout her campaign, Kawas recounted memories of her mother speaking to her father through a glass partition in a detention center, and the lengthy bus rides she took as a child to visit him. She used these experiences to argue that the U.S. immigration system is both flawed and harsh.

Documents obtained by The Post show that in 1995, Kawas was convicted in the Richmond City Circuit Court in Virginia for making a false statement, a felony with a potential five-year sentence. 

A decade later, in Bergen County, New Jersey, he faced charges for theft by deception related to inflating property values fraudulently between $500 and $74,999. He pled guilty in August 2006 and received a three-year state prison sentence in October of that year.

He was released early, serving approximately a year and a few months.

His immigration case was prolonged in the courts. A federal immigration judge initially ordered his removal after he missed a 2004 hearing. 

He applied for cancellation of removal and a hardship waiver, claiming his deportation would severely affect his American family. These appeals were unsuccessful. 

The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit dismissed his final petition for review in December 2008, finding his due process claims unconvincing and his legal arguments lacking merit.

His deportation to Jordan occurred under the Bush administration, not under President Trump, although Kawas often referenced Trump’s immigration policies while discussing her family’s situation during her campaign.

On her campaign website, Kawas stated that her father “was detained by ICE and deported from the US by the same cruel immigration system that is harming the people of Queens today.” 

In an interview with Jacobin, she said “When I was in seventh grade, my dad was picked up by ICE; he was held in immigration detention for three years and eventually deported. It was very formative for me to go visit him every week in prisons in New York City and detention centers around New Jersey,”

She omitted mentioning his criminal convictions in both accounts.

In a candidate questionnaire, Kawas acknowledged her father’s repeated incarcerations without detailing the underlying offenses. 

“As a child of someone who has been incarcerated multiple times, this is deeply personal to me as my visits to my father were a lifeline to maintain our family structure,” she wrote.

Kawas’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Post reached out to the Bergen County Superior Court and Richmond City Circuit Court for the underlying complaints and indictments in both cases.

On the day of the election, Zohran Mamdani, who endorsed her, was actively campaigning in her district.

Kawas, who retweeted an account on X that wrote “Palestine was on the ballot” on Tuesday morning, won her election with 58.33% of the vote.