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.
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.
Sonja Eidson died in 2016 from cancer, but Mr Eidson and his daughter had been seeking to stay in Australia.
In April 2016 Immigration Minister Peter Dutton decided Mr Eidson failed to meet "character requirements" to stay in the country due to outstanding arrest warrants in the United States.
"They have had their case comprehensively assessed over many years by the department, the courts, various ministers and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal," a Department of Immigration and Border Protection spokesperson told AAP.
"Mr Eidson has failed in his bid to obtain a visa, and he has been detained ahead of his removal from Australia."
Mr Katter says since arriving in Australia, Mr Eidson had pioneered a wellness industry in far north Queensland and been a "well-loved, popular, respectable citizen".
He said Wednesday's detention of Mr Eidson had been a shock, as an immigration hearing for his daughter was ongoing as she tries to regain the citizenship revoked by the Australian government in April last year.
"This poor 73-year-old bloke whose just lost his wife and was responsible for some alleged misdemeanour nearly half-a-century ago - to be detained by 15 police/government officers, it's just sickening," Mr Katter said.
Mr Katter said Mr Eidson's daughter was a business owner in Mackay who had proven her value to the community.
""Patton's daughter, Maya, has one of the best restaurants in Mackay, where we're desperately short of jobs and good high-class restaurants for our tourists and our locals."
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