As a prominent civil rights attorney, Michigan Civil Rights Commissioner, and the founder of the new Arab American Civil Rights League in Dearborn, Michigan, attorney Nabih Ayad is one of the leaders of the movement for equal rights and protections for Arab Americans and people of all backgrounds.

“To me, civil rights runs through my veins, it’s been a passion of mine since I was a kid,” Ayad said about his current roles.

Rev. Wendell Anthony, left, and Ayad. Anthony is president of the NAACP Detroit Chapter and an ACRL board member.

But when the current Canton, Michigan resident first opened his law firm, Ayad & Associates, in Dearborn, he had other plans for his first professional foray into the realm of law. 

An older Caucasian American woman changed those plans when she walked into Ayad’s new office in Dearborn one day, bringing an important immigration case to his attention.

The woman began crying as she entered Ayad’s office, in tears over her Arab American husband’s pending deportation from the United States. To compound matters, she was also dealing with serious medical problems at the time and likely wouldn’t have been able to move along with her husband of over ten years. She had already been to ten different attorneys looking for someone who would take her case.

Ayad felt great empathy for the woman but didn’t believe he could help her.

“She was talking to me about his immigration case which I knew nothing about, but I was so moved by her story,” he said. 

Ayad thought it was best that she find another attorney with more immigration experience but didn’t want to turn her down and offered her a retainer contract. 

“The next morning she comes into my office with the retainer; from there I was like ‘Wow, I have to help her now.'”

Ayad decided to take on the case and spent many nights until early morning learning the ins and outs of immigration law. 

In 1999 Ayad filed two separate motions with the same judge asking to get the case re-opened and eventually convinced him, using the woman’s medical situation to bolster his argument, in favor of the man staying. 

The man eventually received his green card and the couple named a child after Ayad for his hard work.

From that point on, Ayad began to build up his own law business using the success in his first immigration case as motivation. 

Nabih H. Ayad & Associates, PC moved to its current location in Canton five years ago and has assembled a law team capable of handling all aspects of civil rights and immigration. 

Ayad at the launch event for the ACRL organization in Dearborn.

Specializing in the categories of civil rights, criminal immigration and business litigation, which all tie together in many cases according to Ayad, the dedicated team of four attorneys plus one paralegal worker and a secretary has taken on several high profile cases. 

Many of them stemmed from the post-9/11 culture of suspicion and hate that enveloped much of America.

“We took on so many cases after 9/11,” Ayad said. “We sued municipalities, government officials, corporations…They involved things like false imprisonment, immigration; there were so many of them…We also were able to get the only reported terrorism case dismissed on a preliminary exam after a man was accused of attempting to bomb two federal buildings in Detroit.”

Among the post-9/11 cases to gain widespread attention was “American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee v. Ashcroft” in 2003 during which Ayad as the lead attorney on behalf of many petitioners who were Lebanese citizens filed an application for writ of habeas corpus challenging Attorney General John Ashcroft and the United States Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Bureau’s) commencement of expedited removal proceedings against the petitioners. The Bureau had alleged that petitioners obtained fraudulent advance parole documents, because of a criminal conspiracy, to enter into the United States. The petitioners that remained in the United States faced removal, as some of the other Lebanese citizens that had been removed.      

The bureau attempted to dismiss the case but the U.S. District Court held that doing so would be in violation of the petitioners’ due process rights. Their writ of habeas corpus was granted and the Bureau was permanently enjoined from using the expedited removal procedure against them. 

Ayad personally has been featured on MSNBC, CNN, was invited to appear on the Today Show, and many more national programs while his firm’s cases have been highlighted in newspapers across America and the world. 

One of his most high profile recent cases was on behalf of Dearborn’s Amer family in federal court against Michigan’s state-run Judson Center, Inc., a foster home that wrongly took four children away from the family after the mother, Rehab Amer, was falsely accused and quickly acquitted of killing her son, who died in a bathtub-related accident. 

ACRL board members pose with Attorney Ayad for a photo at the launch event. Ayad has defended clients in several high profile civil rights cases and will provide the legal background for the organization.

And as Civil Rights Commissioner appointed by former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, Ayad has tackled a variety of issues and provided a voice for the marginalized Arab American community. 

“We’ve put many issues to the forefront including ones of Arab American concern such as driver’s license issues for immigrants, racial profiling, and more,” he said. 

“I brought to the commission information about the importance of immigrants and the role they play in the economic wealth of the state for example, and now you see the new Governor Rick Snyder stating that immigrants are good for the state and providing clear initiatives on that subject.”

Ayad also hopes to defend the community through his new Arab American Civil Rights League which will help to highlight accomplishments of Arab Americans, defend them in the media against stereotypes, working with officials at all levels to promote more positive policies, education and governance, and more. The organization has the full support of his law team as well and includes a diverse board featuring various law experts and civil rights leaders including Rev. Wendell Anthony, the president of Detroit’s NAACP.

While he and his team have a lot on their plate, Ayad is confident that what he’s doing is making a difference, which is Ayad’s ultimate goal.

“When I was young I just knew I wanted to do something big, I wanted to have a legacy of some sort, and I always had this internal drive to do that,” he said.