Story thread · 2 reports / 2 sources

After their dad was deported, family works to keep his Humboldt Park sandwich shop and legacy alive.

suntimes.com · 2h · first reportShare

Nooran Amin knows the drill by now at the Best Sub #2 sandwich shop in Humboldt Park. On a stiflingly hot weekday morning, he opens the door, heads toward the kitchen and turns on the grill and the deep fryers. “Those two things take the longest to heat up,” he says. “Then, I turn on the lights, turn on the fans, take some fries out, take the burger buns out.” Nooran is 19. Until last fall, he was a college student at Dominican University who loved watching football and sending Instagram reels to his friends. He had a part-time job at an optical store near his family’s home in Addison and helped work the cash register at Best Sub #2 — his dad’s restaurant — only during school breaks. Everything changed last September. That's when Nooran’s father, 64-year-old Asif Amin Cheema, was detained by federal immigration agents just three minutes from his home during the early days of Operation Midway Blitz. Despite having no criminal record, he was arrested because he had a removal order for a