About the McAllisters

The McAllisters, are a Catholic family from the Lower Ormeau Road area of Belfast in the north of Ireland, who have been seeking political asylum in the United States. Malachy and Bernadette McAllister and their four children fled Belfast in 1988, after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt by pro-British Loyalists. Following weeks of evidence by some of the foremost authorities on the conflict in the north of Ireland, the trial judge found that the McAllisters had suffered severe persecution as a result of the attack on their home, ritual intimidation and abuse from the British security forces, public humiliation by those forces and a lifetime of discrimination. The judge awarded political asylum to Bernadette and the McAllister children, but ordered Malachy deported to face the same dangers, because he had served a prison sentence for fighting back against his persecutors.

On her 46th birthday in May, 2004, Bernadette McAllister died, just six weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. With the tragic and sudden death of Bernadette McAllister, her children are in imminent danger of deportation to Northern Ireland where their lives would be in jeopardy. The McAllister family fled Belfast in 1988 and sought refuge in America following a gun attack on their home by a loyalist death squad.

Bernadette and her children won political asylum in federal court in 2001 because they proved that they were persecuted and ultimately targeted for attack by loyalist paramilitaries.

With Bernadette's death, the McAllister family is left to face the struggle without her support. Malachy now has to raise his children without their mother and continue to fight the U.S. government to stop the deportation of his family. more>>

Bernadette McAllister

President Bush: *HOW MUCH MORE CAN ONE FAMILY ENDURE?* After all the suffering endured by the McAllister family, they should not have to live in fear that the American government is gong to send them back to face the loyalist death squads. *We need to keep them safe in this country, where they belong.*

What you can do, President Bush:	Mr. President, the McAllister Family needs your help today. We ask that you immediately suspend their deportation. In the past, when the Clinton Administration was faced with similar cases involving numerous Irishmen facing deportation to Northern Ireland, these cases were resolved at the request of the Irish American community by suspending the deportation proceedings and allowing them to remain in America with their families. We are now requesting that you direct Homeland Security Deputy Director Asa Hutchinson to do the same for the McAllister family.

What you, Irish America, can do:	You can help the McAllister family by adding your signature to the Congressional sign-on letter from Representatives Peter King (R-NY) and Steve Rothman (D-NJ). The King/Rothman letter, addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, requests that deportation proceedings against the McAllister family be suspended. Through these efforts, Irish Americans and Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle can voice their support for the McAllister family's plea to remain here in the United States. Thank you. Send donations to: The McAllister Family Fund c/o Smith, Dornan & Dehn 110 East 42^nd Street, Suite 1303 New York, NY 10017

Despite the Good Friday peace accord, Northern Irish activist Malachy McAllister faces deportation after an immigration court denied his appeal against deportation. Additionally, the Board of Immigration Appeals reversed a previous court decision to grant asylum to McAllister’s wife and the couple’s four children. Irish activist groups in the US have rallied around the cause of McAllister.

In his youth, Malachy McAllister, like so many others of his generation, served time in a British prison after becoming involved in conflict with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), a sectarian paramilitary organization in the guise of a civilian police force. McAllister served over three years in prison and was released in 1985.

In 1988, masked gunmen fired 26 shots into the McAllisters’ home while three of their four children were inside with their grandmother. Soon after, the McAllisters moved to Toronto, and from there, to New Jersey in 1996.

Although the entire family requested political asylum because they knew their lives would be in danger if they returned to their hometown of Belfast, an immigration judge ordered in late 2000 that Malachy McAllister be deported, while granting asylum to his wife because she suffered extreme persecution. McAllister appealed his denial and the government appealed the asylum granted to his wife.

Just before Thanksgiving, 2003, while McAllister was attending a meeting at the Capitol Hill office of Rep. Donald Payne, an incoming cell phone call relayed the message that the Board of Immigration Appeals not only had ordered his immediate deportation, but also had revoked the asylum status of his wife and children.

McAllister immediately filed motions with an appeals court in Philadelphia, and won a temporary stay of his deportation, although not of his detention. The same court, however, had ruled in favor of deportation of another Irish political refugee, John Edward McNicholl, under circumstances similar to Malachy's, and refused to hear an appeal to suspend McNicholl’s deportation, and in April, 2006 .

Malachy had become, by this time, a well respected and welcome member of the Irish American community. That community was outraged at what was viewed as an attempt by the BCIS to blind-side Malachy and his supporters by spiriting him out of the country on Thanksgiving weekend when it was apparently assumed that that the deed wouldn't be noticed until it was to late to take action. Galvanized by this, and the recent bitter experiences of John McNicholl's deportation, and the unjust incarceration of yet another political emigre, Ciarán Ferry, since January 30, 2003, the family experienced, as Malachy says a "an enormous groundswell of support from the Irish-American community, and from groups like the IAUC and AOH in particular." (Click here to read about the groups that have come out in support of the McAllister's)

Malachy stated that "we have witnessed the result of democracy in action. Without the support of Irish-America, our Representatives and Senators, and without the media shining a light on this case, I have no doubt but that I would have been arrested, shackled and shipped out to face my persecutors. Bernie and I have only ever sought the chance to raise our family in an atmosphere free from fear and bigotry, and give them opportunities that were denied us."

He went on to say: "we still have a lot of work to do until this government recognizes that my family, and other Irish nationals in similar situations, present no danger to the safety and security of the United States. We must keep moving toward that goal, but today has been a significant victory for democracy and justice."

From Thanksgiving, through the middle of January, 2004, the McAllister family had been on what they call an "emotional rollercoaster", coming within a hair's breath of deportation on a number of occasions before obtaining legal relief by way of last minute stays, the latest being by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, while their appeal is heard.

Sadly, the family suffered another blow when, On her 46th birthday in May, 2004, Bernadette McAllister died, just six weeks after being diagnosed with cancer. With the tragic and sudden death of Bernadette McAllister, her children are in imminent danger of deportation to Northern Ireland where their lives would be in jeopardy.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service is trying to send Malachy McAllister and his children back to Northern Ireland where their lives would be in grave danger and they could be murdered by a death squad.

Ø The McAllister family (Malachy, Bernadette, and their children Gary, Jamie, Nicola and Sean) fled Belfast in 1988 in the wake of an assassination attack on their home by home by pro-British paramilitaries. A Loyalist death squad, armed with automatic weapons, nearly succeeded in claiming the lives of the McAllisters' young children and their grandmother.

Ø The British security forces, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, gave Malachy’s name and address to the assassins. His security details were found in a house used by the hitmen.

Ø Theresa Clinton, a family relative was gunned down in her living room by Loyalist paramilitaries. Also, the RUC (now the Police Service of Northern Ireland) warned members of Bernadette McAllister’s family that their security files were leaked to the Loyalists.

Ø Just last year, Irish America’s largest newspaper “The Irish Echo” received an email from the Red Hand Commando paramilitary group threatening ‘next time we won’t miss’ should the McAllisters be deported.

Bernadette McAllister and her children were initially granted political asylum by Immigration Court in New Jersey; the Federal Judge found that they had suffered "severe past persecution" because of their political beliefs and because they were Malachy McAllister's family. Malachy's request was denied as a result of his convictions in Belfast for his part in what he 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 is flying in the face of the facts and expert testimony as exhaustively outlined in the Immigration Judge's decision. Judge Dogin stated that 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.

Since his arrival in the US, Mr. McAllister has been a model citizen. He founded a successful business while making a safe home for his family. Two of his children are still enrolled in secondary school and his other sons are married to American citizens.

Sadly, Malachy's wife Bernadette died suddenly of cancer in May 2004, leaving him as a single parent struggling to provide for this by now very American family.

Who are the McAllister Family?