McAllisters get a break

The decision will give the Belfast family legal breathing space that could last for “many many” months, said the family’s New York-based attorney, Eamonn Dornan.
“This was a better decision than we expected,” Dornan said Tuesday only minutes after being informed by the court that it had granted a reprieve against deportation to Malachy McAllister and had put on hold orders for voluntary departure against Bernadette and three of the children.
The one exception to the favorable ruling concerned the couple’s son Mark — more commonly known as “Jamie” — who has a conviction for passing a controlled substance. Though he has been on probation and was not required to serve prison time, Jamie McAllister’s conviction led to the appeals court denying the motion for a stay of removal filed on his behalf.
The court stated that it did not have jurisdiction as a result of the conviction.
The voluntary departure order against Jamie McAllister expires on Friday, Jan. 16. The McAllisters were in urgent consultations with attorney Dornan at presstime in an effort to secure the same breathing space for Jamie as the rest of the family had just won.
In the case of Malachy, Bernadette and the other three children, the appeals court referred the cases of all of them to its own three-judge Merits Panel.
“The court has decided that Malachy’s case has merit. We had to show the likelihood of success in our case. The court agreed that success was likely. The decision is very positive,” Dornan said.
Dornan said that the Merits Panel would also examine the cases of Bernadette McAllister, her sons Gary and Sean, and daughter Nicola.
“We now have the needed breathing space,” Dornan said.
That breathing space came against a widespread expectation that the court would rule against all or some members of the family who want to remain in the U.S. because they contend that their lives would be in danger back in Ireland.
Early Tuesday morning, Malachy McAllister described his and his family’s predicament as “gut wrenching.”
A little over an hour later, the largely favorable four-page decision had been released by the court and the world suddenly looked a lot brighter from the windows of the family home in Wallington, N.J.
“We’re dumbfounded,” McAllister said. “There have been so many high and lows. We’re so relieved. It’s unbelievable.
“The support we’ve had has been incredible. We’re humbled by it.”
That support, coming from politicians and Irish-American activists and organizations, has been constant since an immigration court decision in November that Malachy McAllister, a one-time Irish National Liberation Army member, should be deported to Ireland.
The support has ranged from the family’s congressman, Rep. Steve Rothman, to New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and New York Rep. Peter King.
The latest political intervention came just last week when New York Rep. Eliot Engel penned a letter to Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation security at the Department of Homeland Security, urging an end to proceedings against the McAllisters.
“Deporting the McAllister family is not what is intended by America’s asylum law. Our country has always been a refuge for those fleeing oppression. I am convinced that returning the McAllister family to Northern Ireland would put them in imminent danger,” Engel wrote Hutchinson.
In his letter, Engel referred to a threatening e-mail sent to the McAllisters through the Irish Echo, allegedly by the loyalist paramilitary group the Red Hand Commandos.
It was a gun attack by the Red Hand Commandos on the McAllister home in Belfast in 1988 that prompted the family to flee, first to Canada and then the U.S.
The e-mail stated in part: “we won’t miss next time.”
The exact effects of the strong bipartisan political support for the McAllisters on the appeals court deliberations was unclear. The court made no reference to it in its written decision.
However, the court was made aware of political support. One of the motions filed by attorney Dornan included a copy of a letter sent last month by New Jersey Gov. McGreevey to the district director of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Newark.
That letter, and subsequent statements by McGreevey, made clear his support for more consideration of the family’s case by the court, a sentiment also held by close to twenty members of the U.S. House of Representatives who have added their names to a “co-sign” letter in support of the McAllisters written by Rep. Peter King.