R
Roger
Guest
January 31, 2007
U.S. Judge Ends 20-Year Case to Deport 2 Tied to Terrorists
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 30 - Chastising the government with poetry and blunt
language, an immigration judge on Tuesday ended 20-year-old deportation
proceedings against two of eight men who had been accused of ties to a
Palestinian organization classified as a terrorist group.
The judge, Bruce J. Einhorn, of Immigration Court here, faulted the
government for repeated delays in producing evidence that the two, who with
the others became known as the L.A. Eight, should be deported as a threat to
the United States.
The case has been monitored by civil libertarians, who see it as an example
of overreaching in terror cases.
Officials had accused the men, seven Palestinians and a Kenyan, of
supporting the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a branch of
the Palestinian Liberation Organization that the government classifies as a
terrorist group.
The eight denied being members and accused the government, which never filed
criminal charges against them, of political persecution.
The two men, Khader Musa Hamide and Michel Ibrahim Shehadeh, are the sole
remaining defendants and the only ones who were legal permanent residents
when the case began.
One of the others returned to the Palestinian areas. The other five, who had
been charged with violating temporary visas, were given legal permanent
residency. One became a United States citizen during the proceedings, which
included appeals to the Supreme Court.
"I certainly hope it is the end of the road," said David Cole, a lawyer with
the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, which represented the two
men along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and
the National Lawyers Guild.
Mr. Hamide, 52, a coffee and tea wholesaler who has lived in the country for
35 years, said the ruling relieved him.
"This is a dark cloud that has hung over our lives for 20 years," he said.
"This was over expression of political views that may not be popular but we
have a right to make."
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, said,
"I.C.E. finds the judge's decision troubling as a matter of fact and law,
and the agency is considering its legal options."
Judge Einhorn began his ruling with a quotation from the poet William Knox's
"Songs of Israel," a paean to mortality that begins, "On why the spirit of
mortal be proud?"
"Since time began to tick," he continued, "human beings have contemplated
their mortality with the certainty that they face a worldly end. Such
certainty must come to cases as well."
At another point the judge criticized the government's nine-month delay in
responding to an order due on June 27, 2005. "One could conceive, carry and
deliver a child during the course of the government's delay," he wrote.
In the end, he said, the government failed to prove that the men were
deportable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/us/31deport.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print
U.S. Judge Ends 20-Year Case to Deport 2 Tied to Terrorists
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 30 - Chastising the government with poetry and blunt
language, an immigration judge on Tuesday ended 20-year-old deportation
proceedings against two of eight men who had been accused of ties to a
Palestinian organization classified as a terrorist group.
The judge, Bruce J. Einhorn, of Immigration Court here, faulted the
government for repeated delays in producing evidence that the two, who with
the others became known as the L.A. Eight, should be deported as a threat to
the United States.
The case has been monitored by civil libertarians, who see it as an example
of overreaching in terror cases.
Officials had accused the men, seven Palestinians and a Kenyan, of
supporting the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a branch of
the Palestinian Liberation Organization that the government classifies as a
terrorist group.
The eight denied being members and accused the government, which never filed
criminal charges against them, of political persecution.
The two men, Khader Musa Hamide and Michel Ibrahim Shehadeh, are the sole
remaining defendants and the only ones who were legal permanent residents
when the case began.
One of the others returned to the Palestinian areas. The other five, who had
been charged with violating temporary visas, were given legal permanent
residency. One became a United States citizen during the proceedings, which
included appeals to the Supreme Court.
"I certainly hope it is the end of the road," said David Cole, a lawyer with
the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, which represented the two
men along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and
the National Lawyers Guild.
Mr. Hamide, 52, a coffee and tea wholesaler who has lived in the country for
35 years, said the ruling relieved him.
"This is a dark cloud that has hung over our lives for 20 years," he said.
"This was over expression of political views that may not be popular but we
have a right to make."
Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, said,
"I.C.E. finds the judge's decision troubling as a matter of fact and law,
and the agency is considering its legal options."
Judge Einhorn began his ruling with a quotation from the poet William Knox's
"Songs of Israel," a paean to mortality that begins, "On why the spirit of
mortal be proud?"
"Since time began to tick," he continued, "human beings have contemplated
their mortality with the certainty that they face a worldly end. Such
certainty must come to cases as well."
At another point the judge criticized the government's nine-month delay in
responding to an order due on June 27, 2005. "One could conceive, carry and
deliver a child during the course of the government's delay," he wrote.
In the end, he said, the government failed to prove that the men were
deportable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/us/31deport.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print
