It was one year ago Tuesday that Al Adi boarded a plane for his native country Jordan, ending a month-long fight to keep him in the United States.

He now lives in an apartment near Amman, Jordan with his wife, Fidaa. When he realized that someone from Youngstown contacted him for an interview, Adi choked up briefly.

Adi greeted his daughters and family members at the Amman airport in December for the wedding of his daughter, Lina. They have four daughters who Adi says they rarely see.

“I think about my girls every day. You know, that part really hurts, to be away from them,” he says.

Fidaa is a U.S. citizen, so she has been back to Youngstown. Adi has not been to the U.S. since he was arrested in mid-January last year and later deported.

“What we’ve done for the last year is, we have worked with what we had still there in the United States, in Youngstown.”

Adi recently sold his grocery store in downtown Youngstown, but he still owns three buildings and some apartments.

“I do miss my business, the people I’ve always interacted with. I miss the city of Youngstown.”

Adi also spends a lot of time fighting to get back to Youngstown.

“I just want to prove, and I want to help as much as possible, thousands and thousands of people who are going through the same thing I’ve gone through,” Adi says.

Al and Fidaa have traveled to Egypt, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. They say they often talk with people from Youngstown.

“We still have ties in the city of Youngstown, and we will keep those ties because we’re coming back,” Adi says. “Even if it was the last day of my life, I’m going back to Youngstown.”