The father of six drives his wife to the supermarket to buy groceries and his children to school each morning, to their extracurricular activities, to the movies and to the homes of friends.

CHRIS PEDOTA / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Qatanani is spending a lot of time with his family, including his daughter, Isra, second from right, shown in this file photo.

If it seems at times like all he does is drive and run errands in his Chrysler van, Mohammad Qatanani, the prominent Muslim cleric fighting deportation in a closely watched case, could not be happier.

After years of scheduling his and his family's lives around the ability of others to give them rides, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Passaic County finally has his driver's license. The right to apply for the license came with work authorization from immigration authorities, who took years to grant it.

"I tried to get a license for too many years," said Qatanani on a recent afternoon in his office at the mosque. "It was a beautiful occasion."

It was an unexpected bright spot as Qatanani and his family live in limbo.

Imam Mohammad Qatanani.

They are waiting for the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to determine whether to uphold a Newark-based immigration judge's decision a year ago to grant him permanent U.S. residency; reversal would mean deportation. The imam came to New Jersey in 1996 on a religious visa and decided that he wanted to make the United States home. The BIA's decision also will extend to Qatanani's wife, Sumaia, and three oldest children, who were born in Jordan .

In 1999, U.S. immigration officials denied his application for permanent U.S. residency because they said he failed to disclose an arrest and conviction by Israeli security officials during a visit to the West Bank in 1993.

Department of Homeland Security officials say that Qatanani, according to Israel, had links to Hamas, a group deemed terrorist by the United States and Israel. Qatanani, who established a reputation here as a staunch critic of extremism and terrorism, has denied links to Hamas or any terrorist group, and says that although he was detained by Israelis for three months, they never told him he'd been formally arrested or convicted.

Last September, Immigration Judge Alberto Riefkohl rejected DHS allegations as weak and granted the imam permanent U.S. residency. DHS appealed.

Qatanani says that as he waits for the appeals board decision, for which there is no deadline, he and his family are living day to day, building their life here, but knowing that they can be banished from the country at any moment.

"I try not to think about it every single day," Qatanani said, with a polite smile that followed a brief look of sadness. "People ask me every day about whether I've heard anything new."

Immigration officials have declined to comment on Qatanani's case beyond saying that they appealed because they felt the immigration judge's decision was flawed.

Qatanani tries to keep a strong front, rarely expressing bitterness. But when he does express frustration and resentment, it is nearly always when he speaks about the impact of possible deportation on his children.

"The children, they are suffering," Qatanani said, shaking his head and looking down. "They wonder, and ask what will happen. They are American. They are pizza people. They read 'Harry Potter.' "

One of the most painful moments, Qatanani said, was when he had to tell his daughter, Isra, 18, that she could not go to the college, New Jersey Institute of Technology, that had accepted her. Since the oldest children do not have their U.S. residency, the imam said, they do not qualify for most financial aid programs, and they would be charged as international students.

"My son is at NJIT, and it is very expensive, and we are doing it with some help from others," he said. "But I could not meet the costs for two."

Isra is attending Bergen Community College.

"My father told me he wanted me to follow my dream of going to that college," she said, "because it has the physician's assistant program I wanted to be in, but that he couldn't afford it."

Qatanani said he feels guilt over the problems his children have because of his deportation battle.

Qatanani recalled the night two years ago that his son, Ahmed, felt sharp abdominal pains and the imam — a diminutive man — carried the teenage boy several blocks to a hospital emergency room. Ahmed had an emergency appendectomy.