Federal MP Bob Katter has waded into a 73-year-old man's fight to avoid deportation from Australia.

Patton Eidson, who lives in Mr Katter's Kennedy electorate in north Queensland, was detained on Wednesday by immigration officials in what Mr Katter describes as a "sickening" waste of resources.

Federal MP Bob Katter condemns the move. Credit:Darrian Traynor

Mr Eidson is being deported after failing to obtain a visa. In 2012 the American was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for entering Australia under a false identity in 1986.

Mr Eidson, his wife Sonja and their daughter Maya arrived on an identity given to them voluntarily by a terminally ill American friend.