November 29, 2003 McAllister Family Under Siege
From the the law offices of Smith Dornan & Shea PC

The Department of Homeland Security ("DHS"), under the authority of Attorney General John Ashcroft, defying a ruling from the United States Court of Appeals, has laid siege to the home of Bernadette McAllister and her children, Sean and Nicola, and has launched a manhunt for her husband Malachy.

On Wednesday, November 19, 2003, Bernadette and her children were making preparations to celebrate Thanksgiving in the New Jersey town of Wallington. That was until Bernadette received the shock decision from the Board of Immigration Appeals that she and her children were to be stripped of their hard-won status of political asylum and deported within 30 days back to Belfast. Worse still, her husband Malachy was in grave danger of being shackled and deported immediately.

As the McAllisters raced to file their appeals and seek the protection of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, around 20 DHS agents surrounded their home in the early hours of Friday morning, and two agents barged their way into her home looking for her husband. The last time armed government agents descended on the McAllister home was in 1988 in Belfast when a pro-British Loyalist death-squad came to kill Malachy and launched a sustained gun attack on her children and their grandmother. A federal judge found, as a result, that Bernadette and the children had suffered "severe persecution" and granted them political asylum in the United States.

The Federal agents who raided her home refused to identify themselves and still have not produced a warrant for her husband's arrest. Nevertheless they threatened to arrest Bernadette and her children for "obstruction of justice" when she attempted to serve them with a court-stamped copy of her motion seeking a stay of the detention and removal of her husband.

Despite the fact that the Court of Appeals immediately issued a temporary stay of removal pending its decision on this case, the DHS remains staked out at the McAllister home and continues, unlawfully, to treat Malachy McAllister as a "fugitive" from the very removal order which the Court has stayed! More disturbingly, the DHS continues to threaten Bernadette with criminal arrest for "obstruction of justice." The irony is glaring. The only people in this case obstructing the wheels of justice are John Ashcroft's DHS agents.

The McAllister family's case enjoys the widespread support of many in the Irish-American community and its media, among groups such as the Irish American Unity Conference and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, as well as the support of many Congressional leaders. However, the family remains in grave danger and we must keep the pressure on until the siege is lifted.

Call Attorney General John Ashcroft and demand to know why Malachy McAllister is being treated as a fugitive, and why the DHS are staking out the McAllister home in the run-up to Thanksgiving, when their appeal has been accepted by a United States Court of Appeals. Call your Senator and Representative, and ask that they sign on to a letter from Stephen R. Rothman (D, NJ; 9th District) instructing the DHS to allow Malachy McAllister to return home without fear of arrest and detention.

DEMAND THAT THE SIEGE BE LIFTED NOW!

Hon. John Ashcroft
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Tel: (202) 353-1555

Smith Dornan & Shea P.C.
355 Lexington Avenue, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Tel: (212) 370-5316
Fax: (212) 370-7174