New plea to allow family facing US deportation to stay
**Via Newshound
By Connla Young
United States security chiefs are coming under fresh pressure to allow an Irish family facing deportation to stay in the country.
In April this year, Malachy McAllister and two of his four children – Nicola (20) and Sean (19) – were told they will be deported from America within months after an appeals court sitting in Philadelphia upheld an earlier decision to force them to leave the country.
A former republican prisoner, Mr McAllister fled his Belfast home in 1988 after it was attacked by loyalists.
In an unprecedented move, one of the three appeals court judges pleaded with the US Homeland Security chiefs to allow the family to stay despite the court’s ruling.
The McAllister family received a further boost this week when a powerful Irish-American lobby group wrote a letter to Homeland Security deputy secretary, Michael Jackson, in support of their campaign to remain in the country.
The Irish-American Unity in Action Committee is made up of prominent Irish-American human-rights campaigners and lawyers.
Mr Jackson said: “We are making this request for two reasons.
“Not only has Mr McAllister lived peaceably in this country for more than ten years and has proven himself to be absolutely no threat whatsoever to this country.
“He has also actively supported the Good Friday Agreement and has been a strong proponent of the Irish peace process which reflects the current policy of the administration.
“Clearly, the McAllisters deserve to remain in this country where they have lived peacefully and have contributed so much for so many years.”
Mr McAllister was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1981 for his part in an INLA attack on an RUC man in Belfast. Mr McAllister and his family fled their Lower Ormeau home after it was raked by gunfire in a loyalist attack.
After being denied asylum in Canada in 1996 the family moved to the US where they have been fighting a battle to remain ever since.
