The Lebanese co-owner of a Donald Trump-themed hamburger restaurant chain in Texas is facing deportation after immigration authorities detained him.
Roland Mehrez Beainy, 28, entered the US as “a non-immigrant visitor” from Lebanon in 2019 and was supposed to have left the country by 12 February 2024, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson told newsmen.
Beainy applied for legal status after purportedly wedding a woman – but the agency maintained there is no proof he ever lived with her during the alleged marriage. ICE said its officers arrested Beainy on 16 May – five years after he launched the first of multiple Trump Burger locations – and placed him into immigration proceedings.
Beainy denied ICE’s charges against him, saying: “Ninety percent of the shit they’re saying is not true.” He is tentatively scheduled for a hearing in immigration court on 18 November.
Trump Burger gained national attention after Beainy opened the original location in Bellville, Texas, in 2020, the same year Trump lost his bid for a second presidential term to Joe Biden. Replete with memorabilia paying reverence to Trump as well as politically satirical menu items targeting his enemies, Beainy’s chain expanded to other locations, including Houston.
Trump won a second presidency in January, and his administration summarily began delivering on promises to pursue mass deportations of immigrants. Political supporters of Trump in the US without papers, at least in many cases, have not been spared.
Beainy’s detention by ICE is not his only legal plight, he sued the landlord of a Trump Burger location in Kemah, Texas, whom Beainy claimed forcibly removed staff and took over the restaurant.
The landlord responded with his own lawsuit accusing Beainy of unpaid debts and renamed the Kemah restaurant Maga Burger.
In 2022, Beainy told a local media that he endured threats to have Trump Burger burned down when the first one opened its doors. But the brand had since gained a loyal following and a portion of its profits were set aside to aid Trump’s fundraising,
“I would love to have [Trump’s] blessing and have him come by,” Beainy said at the time. “We’re hoping that he … sees the place.”