Family of detained Polish doctor denounces allegations of child abuse
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. -- A Polish doctor's arrest last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents may have have been triggered by allegations of child abuse, CBS affiliate WWMT-TV reports. Lukasz Niec's wife, Rachelle Burkart-Niec, denounced the accusations, showing WWMT a copy of a charging request from the Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney. She said someone filed the claims against Niec last July, after his daughter was found with a bruise.
"It says warrant denied," said Burkart-Niec, who visited her husband Wednesday at the Calhoun County Jail in Battle Creek, Michigan. "There is no reasonable likelihood of conviction."
"That charge, that CPS allegation, has been reviewed by the Michigan State Police and he has been found innocent of that," said Niec's colleague and friend, Penny Rathburn.
Burkart-Niec said the case had no merit and that her husband -- as well as his supporters -- are now requesting a significant review of the immigration laws in his case.
"Lukasz is a legal immigrant and a lot of these immigrants are illegal immigrants," Rathburn said. "So, I think it's such a different story that it's hard to compare and contrast them."
Although he's not an American citizen, Niec became a permanent U.S. resident with a green card shortly after he moved to the U.S. with his family in 1979, when he was five years old.
"They were always told that permanent green card was permanent residency. So, we haven't asked him 'do you want to be a citizen?'" Bukart-Niec said, WWMT reports. "We did renew his Polish passport, we did renew his permanent green card. That took us going to the Polish embassy a number of times and an interpreter. And so, we got document after document completed and final."
His family fears that even if he is allowed to stay in the U.S., the battle could take months.
"Him being away this long really does, you know, take love to a whole new level," said Burkhart-Niec, who thought it was a prank when her husband called to say he had been detained by ICE.
"We need him here. And we're lonely without him and he knows that," Burkhart-Niec said.
"He is fighting to be in his home which is the United States. He doesn't even speak Polish," said Niec's sister, Iwona Niec-Villaire.
"CBS This Morning" reported earlier this week that Niec-Villaire believes the doctor's detention stems in part from a 1992 misdemeanor arrest for property damage that Niec pleaded guilty to when he was 17.
According to court records obtained by the Michigan news website, MLive, Niec also pleaded guilty to a 2008 charge related to drunk driving. The plea was eventually withdrawn and the case dismissed after he completed probation. In 2013, a jury reportedly found him not guilty of a domestic violence charge.
Niec's colleagues and friends are now writing letters to an immigration judge in hopes it will rally support.
"He's exactly the kind of person that our immigration policy should be encouraging to prosper here," said Mike Raphelson, one of Niec's colleagues.
"He's been just completely the model physician that you want the physicians to be," another colleague said.
Kalamazoo's Bronson Methodist Hospital, where Niec has worked for more than a decade, said he has contributed "exemplary patient care" and is requesting "he be allowed to return to work and his family as soon as possible."
Niec's wife and his colleague said Niec could face an immigration judge sooner than they expected.
"His case may have been moved up to Friday for hearing to the immigration judge, so he is a little more hopeful now," Rathburn said.
