Court turns away asylum-seeker
An asylum seeker accused of engaging in terrorist activities in Northern Ireland before moving to Wallington lost his battle Monday to have the Supreme Court review his lawsuit.
Lawyers told the justices that Malachy McAllister and his children, Nicola and Sean, face the likelihood of persecution if they are returned to Northern Ireland, the part of the United Kingdom from which they fled 18 years ago after their home was attacked by paramilitary forces.
McAllister, a bricklayer who runs his own masonry business, said his only hope now is special legislation introduced by Rep. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn.
"It's been a long, long process of disappointments and heartache," said McAllister, 49.
McAllister's lawyer, Eamonn Seamus Dornan, said legal options have been exhausted, but that the family is hoping for a "political solution" to keep it in the United States legally.
The Rothman bill, which is pending before the House subcommittee on immigration, border security and claims, would make McAllister, who is a widower, and his children eligible for permanent residency after completing an application for an immigrant visa.
Dornan said he expects the Homeland Security Department to delay any move to deport McAllister while the bill makes its way though the legislative process.
McAllister "has a very dedicated campaign team, and we believe that the congressman's bill is yet to be resolved, and that the Department of Homeland Security will respect that process," he said.
Homeland Security officials could not be reached Monday night.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld immigration rulings to remove McAllister and to dismiss a petition by his children to remain in the United States as moot because their mother died two years ago.
McAllister wanted to challenge the provision in asylum law that denies protection to a person who has engaged in terrorist activities. And in regard to the children's asylum claims and the death of their mother, the family pointed to a Supreme Court ruling that says a case is not rendered moot when a live issue or controversy remains.
In the early 1980s, McAllister became involved in the Irish National Liberation Army, a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army. He served time in prison for acting as an armed lookout in the shooting of a police officer and for conspiring to shoot another officer. He has argued that he was a political prisoner.
"Because of the situation in Northern Ireland, there was no real alternative," McAllister told The Record last year.
After his release from prison, his home was raked with gunfire, and his wife was thrown out of a moving vehicle while she was pregnant, his lawyers said in petitioning the Supreme Court for review.
Art Hostage comments:
Mr Malachy McAllister, if you contact your former INLA/IRA friends, INLA Leader Dessie, (the Border Fox), O'Hare in partiqular, and convince them to facilitate the return of the Stolen Vermeer from Boston, via a confessional box, I, Art Hostage have it on good authority, after consulting with senior American political officals, that you and your family will be allowed to stay in the United States for as long as you want.
Malachy, you will get immunity from prosecution in relation to the Gardner Art Heist and subsequent handling of the art, your case can be part of the overall deal that see's the Vermeer surface, in fact I hope you are working to recover the Vermeer as I write.
Your honest intercession in the Gardner Case will be the key that allows you and your family safe haven, political asylum, in America.
Your defense team have asked for a political solution, well here it is, use your influence, the Stolen Vermeer surfaces, you are allowed to stay in the U.S.
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