Attorney speaks on Roberto Beristain deportation

The owner of Eddie's Steak Shed in Granger was deported to Mexico Tuesday night. Roberto Beristain was dropped off in Juarez in the middle of the night, but his attorney says he hasn't given up hope.

Attorney Adam Ansari is really shocked about this whole ordeal Tuesday night. When Beristain was dropped off around 10:00 p.m. Tuesday night, Ansari says none of the attorneys working on the case were notified Beristain was in transit or being deported. He says the lack of communication is unheard of from anyone on the case. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

"We had been informed that nothing was going to happen until the morning," Ansari said. "Unfortunately at the same time, they were in the process of throwing Roberto out of the country."

Roberto said he was dropped off just around 10 p.m. According to Ansari, there's a treaty in place that prevents deportation after 10.

"They knew about that treaty and law," Ansari said. "So they were rushing him to the border as quick as possible knowing full well that if they go there after 10, it would be a violation of international treaty."

This is all just one big international mess that Ansari says shouldn't have happened in the first place.

"He was wrongly classified," Ansari said.

Ansari says that, back in 2000, Beristain was classified as an "alien present without inspection." He should have been classified as an "arriving alien" since he was coming back through a port of entry from Canada. That's a little confusing, but to sum it up, in the proper classification, he never would have been given the order to voluntarily deport himself.

"He would have been provided further relief options," Ansari said. "And if the judge -- the immigration judge -- was informed by ICE officials that he was actually detained at a port of entry coming into the United States, we wouldn't be in this mess."

Unfortunately for Beristain, he's very much in the mess. He's currently staying at a migrant shelter in Mexico.

"We're having him stand by," Ansari said. "There's more avenues for him. There's a lot of loving arms for him to walk into, and he has people that want him there."

But he's still not giving up any hope of returning back home to his family and his restaurant.

"He loves South Bend and the community around him," Ansari said. "He's holding out all options of coming back."

Ansari has been reading comments on all of these stories being posted. He wants to remind everyone that Beristain took every available route to become a citizen and was checking in with ICE every year to be in the U.S. legally.