While appearing before a federal judge in Michigan last week, Mohan Karki saw his 5-month-old daughter in person for the first time.

Karki was shackled and standing several feet away, according to his wife Tika Basnet, who was in the courtroom last Wednesday. Minutes later, his daughter began to wail and needed to exit the room, Basnet added.

When Karki will reunite with his daughter remains unknown.

"I was crying inside," Basnet said. "I don't want to cry in front of him because he will break down."

For more than eight months, Karki, 30, has been held in immigration custody amid removal proceedings that stemmed from felony charges of burglary, criminal trespassing and interference with government property, all from a single incident when he was a teenager.

Karki's attorneys have been

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