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Please join us in sending the attached letter to Secretary Chertoff. 

                                                       Sincerely,

STEVEN R. ROTHMAN                    Member of Congress

PETER T. KING
Member of Congress

June 17, 2005

The Honorable Michael Chertoff
Secretary
Department of Homeland Security
3801 Nebraska Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20528


Dear Secretary Chertoff:

We are writing to ask for your intervention in the case of Malachy
McAllister (A 73 629 577) and his children, Nicola and Sean.  The
McAllister family is seeking political asylum in the United States based
on past persecution they have suffered and a fear that their lives will
be in danger if they are returned to Northern Ireland.

       Following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, which
ended the conflict in Northern Ireland and which the United States
helped negotiate, the U.S. government suspended deportation proceedings
for nine Irish nationals charged with offenses in Northern Ireland
arising out of that conflict.  We respectfully request that you suspend
deportation proceedings for Malachy, Nicola, and Sean McAllister.

        During the 1980s, Mr. McAllister served time in prison for
offenses arising out of this conflict in Northern Ireland.  When Mr.
McAllister was released from prison, loyalist paramilitaries fired 26
shots into his family's home, barely missing his children and
mother-in-law.  Subsequently, Mr. McAllister and his family fled Belfast
in 1988 after this attempt on their lives.  If they are deported from
the United States, the McAllister family is likely to face the same
dangers in Northern Ireland that they escaped from years ago.  Finally,
Mr. McAllister and his family are clearly neither a threat to the United
States nor its citizens.  Indeed he has been a strong proponent of the
Irish Peace Process which is in accordance with the policies of the Bush
and Clinton Administrations.

       We urge you to take quick action to suspend the deportation
proceedings against the McAllister family.  Thank you for your attention
to this matter, and we look forward to your prompt response.



Sincerely,
 

King/Rothman   letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff

Representatives Peter King (R-NY) and Steve Rothman (D-NJ) are circulating a  requesting that deportation proceedings against the McAllister family be suspended.

You can help the McAllister family by asking your representative to add their signature to the King/Rothman letter.

Through this effort, 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.

How to contact your Congress Member

For further information, please call Carol Russell at (973) 906-1034 or (973) 993-5740.

Sen. Hillary Clinton met with Malachy and Bernadette McAllister after giving support to their bid for political asylum at last week's Brehon Law Society dinner in Manhattan.

Click here for more photos of Malachy with some of the many public figures who have come out in support of his cause.

Brehon lawyers gathered at Rosie O'Grady's Manhattan Club last Friday to honor the New York senator, the families of murdered Northern Irish lawyers Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, and to call for the Cory report into collusion in controversial killings in Northern Ireland to be released in full.

In her speech, Clinton alluded to the actions of her husband's administration when it came to deportation cases, saying that where possible "we sought reasonable solutions in keeping with the rule of law, but recognizing the legitimate fears of many people."

Political and community support for the McAllisters has been bipartisan and considerable. It 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.

A loyalist death squad shot up the McAllisters' home in Belfast in 1988. No one was injured but police told Malachy McAllister that he and his family were on a loyalist hit list. They moved to Canada and in 1996 entered the U.S. and applied for political asylum in March 1997.

Senator Clinton also affirmed support for the stalled Northern Irish peace process, saying that a lot of work needed to be done.

"We have to build trust," Clinton said. "That's why the Cory report must be released in its entirety."

Before Clinton spoke, Geraldine Finucane, wife of murdered Northern Irish lawyer Pat Finucane, accepted an award on behalf of the Finucane family and the family of Rosemary Nelson. In accepting the award, Finucane called for pressure to be placed on the British government to release the Cory Report in full.

"The British government has always found a way to prevent it," she said. "Cory phoned us personally to give us his bottom line: a public inquiry."

But it was Malachy McAllister's speech that moved many of the Brehons in the audience.

"What threat do we pose to the security of this our adopted country?" McAllister asked. "Some here tonight would condemn me and ignore the facts. With respect, you have not walked in my shoes."

He then told a story of two teenage Catholic boys in Belfast in the 1970s who were stopped, searched and harassed by British soldiers.

The soldiers were challenged by a woman with a broom, who was quickly joined by other women with brooms.

One of the boys bolted during the distraction -- that boy, McAllister said, was "yours truly," while the woman with the broom was the late Joyce McCarten, later famous for the "teapot summit" when Hillary Clinton met McCarten during President Clinton's first visit to Ireland.

The McAllisters' claim to asylum in the U.S. hangs on the political-offense concept in law, where violent crimes have been committed by people motivated by political ideals in the face of extreme discrimination or attack.

Their case next goes to the Third Circuit Court on April 22, when a full argument on appeal will be presented by their lawyer, Eamonn Dornan.

Dornan said that he was delighted that Clinton had offered her support for the McAllisters. He said he was aware that previously, in private, Sen. Clinton's advisors had offered support for the McAllisters' case. But this public support for the family from the senator was a considerable boost.

During his speech McAllister also drew distinctions between "acts of terror" such as the Sept. 11 attacks and Bloody Sunday in Derry, and the reasons why people like himself in Ireland had become involved political violence.

"What threat do we pose to the security of this our adopted country?" McAllister asked. "Some here tonight would condemn me and ignore the facts. With respect, you have not walked in my shoes."

Also honored at the event at Rosie O'Grady's Manhattan Club was Stephen McCabe, Irish Parades Emergency Committee observer, and a legal observer at the trial of the three Irishmen who are in custody in Colombia since August 2001. McCabe accepted the Brehon Law Society's Man of the Year award.