Support Political Asylum for Malachy McAllister and his Children

international | racism & migration related issues | other press Wednesday June 22, 2005 13:33 by Irish Northern Aid

Support Political Asylum for Malachy McAllister and his Children

Malachy McAllister

Tell Elected Officials: Support Political Asylum for Malachy McAllister and his Children

It is down to the wire for the McAllister family. A judgment from the Court of Appeals on their asylum request is expected any day. However, there is a sincere effort by Congressional representatives to have Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, intervene in this case and grant the family asylum.

Malachy McAllister and his children, Nicola and Sean, are Irish Catholics from Northern Ireland seeking asylum in the United States based upon their fear of returning home. The McAllisters' request for political asylum has been denied, and they have appealed this decision to the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Should their appeal fail, they are in danger of being deported to Northern Ireland. There was an informational briefing regarding the political asylum case of Malachy McAllister of Wallington, New Jersey on June 8th. The briefing provided Congressional representatives and members of their staffs an update on the facts of the case.

http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/irishnorthernaidcommittee/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=828


The McAllister family (Malachy, his wife Bernadette, and their children Gary, Jamie, Nicola and Sean) fled Belfast in 1988 in the wake of an assassination attack on their home by a Loyalist death squad. The loyalists, armed with automatic weapons, nearly succeeded in claiming the lives of the McAllisters' young children.

Bernadette McAllister and her children were initially granted political asylum by Immigration Court in New Jersey; the Federal Judge having found that they had suffered "severe past persecution" because of their political beliefs and because they were Malachy McAllister's family. Malachy's request for asylum was denied as a result of his convictions in Belfast for his part in what he, and his beleaguered community, believed to be a struggle for national liberation.

Unfortunately, Bernadette and her children were stripped of asylum in a controversial decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The BIA, flying in the face of the facts and expert testimony as exhaustively outlined in the Immigration Judge's decision, ruled not only that the McAllisters had failed to demonstrate that they had suffered "severe past persecution" but that they had suffered no persecution at all. It is incomprehensible to any objective observer that a gun attack on the McAllister children, orchestrated by a Loyalist death squad which the British government was found to be "unwilling or unable to control," is anything less than clear evidence of persecution.

http://www.mcallistercampaign.com/home.htm