It was a one-way ticket out of the United States.
A few hours later, McAllister walked out of the building with another letter warning him not to stray too far from Newark.
McAllister is a former member of the Irish National Liberation Army who last month was ordered deported for being in the U.S. illegally. He and his family have been living in the U.S. for seven years. They had fled Northern Ireland for Canada after loyalist gunmen attacked their home in 1988. McAllister’s wife, Bernadette, and the couple’s four children have also been ordered to leave the U.S.
A decision by a federal appeals court to consider McAllister’s appeal against deportation had turned his attorney’s legal rush into a crawl.
“We now want the 3rd Circuit Court to take more time to consider the case,” attorney Eamonn Dornan said Tuesday.
Last week, with the arrest and detention of Malachy McAllister seemingly imminent, Dornan had to scramble to enter a plea for an emergency stay with the Philadelphia-based appeals court.
Time was of the essence in that there was none to spare.
Now Dornan wants more time to prepare for the appeal on behalf of his suddenly travel-restricted client.
“We got what we immediately needed, so now we’ll be trying to get the court to put off a hearing in order to give us more breathing room,” Dornan said.
For McAllister, it has been especially difficult of late to catch a deep breath, or a sense of his bearings.
Just as the time crunch surrounding his case has been suddenly reversed, so too has been the government’s travel plans for the Belfast native.
The Justice Department letter had informed McAllister that his departure from the U.S. to Ireland would be enforced the very day of his surrendering to BICE.
He would be permitted 44 pounds of baggage.
A few hours later, McAllister emerged from the BICE building, this time with a superseding letter instructing him to first call BICE if he planned to travel more than 150 miles from Newark for more than 48 hours.
He had also just surrendered his passport.
“One minute I was going to be deported from the country. Now I can’t leave it at all,” McAllister said.
But he said it with a smile.