For more than two months, Paramjit Singh, 48, a US green card holder suffering from a brain tumor and heart disease, has been held in a US immigration detention center.
Mr. Singh, an Indian passport holder, has lived in the United States on a green card since 1994. He lives in Indiana with his family, which owns a chain of gas stations. His wife and two children are US citizens.
But Singh now faces deportation.
On July 30, he was detained by immigration authorities at Chicago O'Hare International Airport while returning from a trip to India and has been in their custody since then.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities have cited cases dating back two years as the reason for his detention, but Mr. Singh's family and lawyer say there are no active cases against him.
They accuse immigration authorities of using old cases to delay his release and say he is not receiving adequate medical care despite a brain tumor and heart condition.
“Paramjit Singh is not getting the medical care he needs. He is just undergoing medical examinations,” his lawyer Louis Angeles told the BBC.
The BBC has asked ICE to respond to these allegations.
Mr Singh visited India regularly and had no immigration problems, his niece Kiran Virk told the BBC. This time, his family waited seven hours at the Chicago airport for his arrival.
Ms Virk says immigration officials told them Mr Singh had been detained in a 1999 case. Despite his family's appeals, he was held at the airport for five days and then transferred to the Clay County Detention Center in Indiana.
The case relates to Mr Singh using a pay phone without paying for it. Court records show he served 10 days in jail and paid a $4,137.50 fine. The verdict stripped him of his American citizenship.
Ms Virk claims that immigration authorities said at the hearing that Mr Singh still faces a year and a half in prison with just 10 days off work.
Immigration authorities also say Mr. Singh was convicted of forgery in Illinois in 2008, but his family says there are no such charges against him.
Ms. Virk said authorities cited the document forgery case to delay Singh's release on $10,000 bail granted by an immigration judge.
She said a private investigator hired by the family found no criminal record in the state for the man named Paramjeet Singh, suggesting authorities may have mistaken him for someone else.
The BBC has asked ICE to respond to the family's claim that there is no forgery case against Mr. Singh in Illinois.
Mr Singh's lawyer told the BBC he planned to challenge the detention, calling it “unethical”.
“We are also taking legal steps to block his deportation from the US,” Mr Angeles told the BBC.
Meanwhile, Mr Singh's family are increasingly concerned about his health as his second operation to remove a brain tumor was delayed by the arrest, Ms Virk said.
She says the family is struggling to contact Mr. Singh at the detention center, where limited telephone numbers and his poor health make communication difficult.
Mr Singh's hearing is scheduled for October 14.
His detention comes amid a broader crackdown by US President Donald Trump's administration on immigration, and especially illegal immigrants in the US.
Trump has said he wants to deport “the worst of the worst,” but critics say immigrants with no criminal records who have been given due process are also being targeted.
In September, Harjeet Kaur, a 73-year-old grandmother who has lived in the United States for more than three decades. was deported to Indiawhich caused anger among the Sikh community.
