Omar Helalat was in his last semester at the University at Albany when he was detained by federal immigration authorities. Instead of graduating with a degree in business administration, the honors student spent the final month of the 2018 spring semester in Batavia Federal Detention Facility near Buffalo.

In December, Helalat celebrated his 23rd birthday — still behind bars.

Helalat moved from Jordan when he was four years old. His family overstayed their tourist visas and a decade later, Helalat got immigration status under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama-era program offering temporary relief and work authorization for young immigrants.

His nearly nine months in immigration detention started with a college romance turned toxic. When he cheated on his girlfriend of a year, she accused him of trying to strangle her. In March, he was arrested on domestic violence charges and sent to the Albany County jail.

His father came from Rockland County, just north of New York City, and paid to bail his only son out of jail, but Helalat was already in immigration detention. The government revoked his DACA and started his deportation.

The charges against Helalat were dismissed when his ex-girlfriend wrote a letter in his defense to the court. The case was unable to proceed without victim cooperation, a spokesperson for the Albany County District Attorney's office said.

Helalat's lawyer said he believed both were at fault. Helalat said he made a mistake he regretted and the couple apologized to each other. But for him, it was too late.

An immigration judge ordered him deported in October. As he's appealing his case, Helalat remains detained — even though he hasn't been convicted of a crime.

"I always wanted to work hard and help and support my family and give them the best, to give them what they needed. I can't do anything in here. It's taking the life out of me. I suffer every day," said the college student over the phone from Batavia Federal Detention Facility. "The only thing that I can do is wait. It's really hard. I've been in this country for so long, I don't understand why this would happen to me."

"I just wish the government could see me as a person instead of things that aren't true about me," he added.

Helalat's lawyer, Matthew Borowski, based out of Buffalo, said his client's DACA shouldn't have been revoked because the criminal charges against him were dropped.

"They could level charges against anybody and revoke DACA without any proof," Borowski said. "Nothing's been proven in the legal system. He was accused. You're innocent until proven guilty in this country."

Individuals are not eligible for DACA if they're charged with or convicted of a felony or significant misdemeanor, but it's not clear if an individual can lose status if charges are dropped.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could not be reached for comment on Helalat's case due to the government shutdown.

A federal judge in California ruled in February that the government couldn't immediately revoke DACA following a Notice to Appear that begins deportation proceedings, which Helalat received in April. The judge ordered the government should reissue DACA to defendants who lost it this way after President Donald Trump took office and cracked down on undocumented immigrants.

Helalat is one among many undocumented immigrants caught in the dragnet of increased ICE arrests under Trump. ICE arrested more than 158,000 undocumented immigrants in the 2018 fiscal year that ended in October. Nearly 32,000 had no convictions but pending criminal charges, like Helalat faced at the time of his arrest, which was a 50 percent increase from 2017. In Trump's first year in office, the number jumped 255 percent.

The change came after Trump signed a sweeping executive order in January 2017 that freed up ICE to arrest and detain any undocumented immigrant — including those with pending criminal charges who might have been passed over under Obama.

Helalat was one of a growing number of unlucky undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for decades. His father, Abdel Helalat, who previously worked with the military in Jordan, brought his family over on tourist visas — but intended to stay, the older man admitted.

Two months after the family arrived in Rockland County, just north of New York City, terrorists took down the Twin Towers on 9/11. The older Helalat said he was too afraid to come forward to seek immigration status after that.

Omar Helalat grew up and went to school in Rockland County until starting at UAlbany in 2016. He had a 3.8 GPA and made the Presidential Honors list. Helalat has three younger sisters — one in college who also received DACA and two others in middle and high school who are U.S.-born citizens.

Helalat's father now has a green card and will have his citizenship interview next week. He applied nearly three years ago for his son to get a green card through him, but the process can take as long as a decade.

Since Helalat's detention, his father makes the six-hour-journey from Rockland County to the detention center near Buffalo every couple weeks to visit him. The older Helalat said he's spent at least $35,000 on two lawyers and contacted U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to get his son out — to no avail.

"He's in a bad situation. When you talk to him, he's alright, but he's going crazy. He asks why. He's okay but he's always unhappy," Abdel Helalat said. "He made a mistake but this mistake has cost him a lot of things."

Omar Helalat applied to be released on bond, but was denied because of the way the government classified him when he arrived back in the country after visiting relatives in Jordan a couple years ago. He's appealed his deportation order and petitioned in federal court against his prolonged detention.

For now, he and his family enter the new year facing his indefinite detention.

"I just want him out," his father said. "I just want him to come back."