As far as restaurant concepts go, “Trump Burger” is a smart move. Whether you like Donald Trump or not, he clearly has a lot of fans. And, like most of America, said fans like burgers.
Combine the two, whip up a menu packed with items like the titular Trump Burger, the Melania Crispy Chicken, and the Barron Burger, loudly proclaim your love of all things Trump, and watch the money roll in from hungry MAGAs. Sure, the burgers were apparently awful, but that’s probably a Democrat hoax or whatever.
Either way, Trump Burger is a foolproof plan! And, despite a threat of legal action from The Trump Organization, spread from its original 2020 location in Bellfield, Texas to Bay City, Flatonia, Greater Houston, and Kemah (with this location named “MAGA Burger”). There’s only one teeny caveat. If you’re immigrants who’ve overstayed your visas, maybe founding a Trump-themed MAGA restaurant is tempting fate.
The Trump Burger co-founder is 28-year-old Roland Beainy, a Lebanese immigrant who entered the country in 2019 as “a non-immigrant visitor” and who was supposed to leave the country by Feb. 12, 2024. He didn’t, and you can probably guess where this is going.
On May 16, Beainy was scooped up by ICE and tossed into detention, with the organization not particularly caring about any loyalty or love for Trump he had, and instead seeing him as yet another brown-skinned alien they can snatch to fill their daily quotas.
As ICE (rather smugly) said:
“Under the current administration, ICE is committed to restore integrity to our nation’s immigration system by holding all individuals accountable who illegally enter the country or overstay the terms of their admission. This is true regardless of what restaurant you own or political beliefs you might have.”
Incredibly, this saga didn’t stop here. Beainy’s business partner and Trump Burger co-owner Iyad Abuelhawa (aka Eddie Hawa), was also picked up by ICE on June 2, who said he’d also overstayed his visa and was trying to set up a sham marriage to remain in the US.
Abuelhawa’s lawyer told the Houston Chronicle that her client has diabetes and a heart condition, and ICE is providing extremely limited medical care and refusing to free him. She said: “He’s not doing well. In my opinion, they’re waiting for him to die.”
Eh, maybe ICE can have these guys
A glance over Abuelhawa’s history indicates he may not be the most sympathetic inmate around. For example, DHS has said that “in 2007, he was convicted of health care fraud and misbranding of a drug for dangerously injecting 1,600 Houston-area residents with fake flu shots. In 2000, he was convicted of assault, and in 2018 he was convicted of intimidation.”
It’s deeply ironic that the absolute worst thing to happen to the Trump Burger founders was… the re-election of Donald Trump. If he’d lost, there would have been no immigration crackdown and they’d be free to peddle burger buns stamped with TRUMP for years to come. Now it seems they’re going to be sent back to Lebanon. Hey guys, let us know how Trump Burger goes down in Beirut!