Irish America’s largest organization pleads with Trump for stay of deportation

In a letter to President Trump, the Ancient Order of Hibernians National President James McKay requested a stay for Irishman Malachy McAllister and his family. His deportation is currently scheduled for November 29, 2019. 

Since legally entering the United States over twenty years ago and applying for asylum, numerous Judges have heard McAllister’s case, including the President’s sister Judge Maryanne Trump-Barry. The judges noted that the current law did not anticipate or provide for the unique situation of the McAllister family. 

There is legislation currently pending in both houses of Congress, with bipartisan backing, to deal with this issue; the Hibernians are asking that the President stay Mr. McAllister’s deportation to allow this legislation an opportunity to advance.

McAllister, who has been living in the US for over two decades, was a member of the Irish National Liberation Army in the 1980s and served three years in prison after being convicted of unlawful and malicious wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm and conspiring to murder police officers. He claims he abandoned the nationalist paramilitary group prior to going to prison.

Read more: Irishman who sought asylum in US ordered to report to ICE for deportation this month

McAllister fled Belfast with his family after a gun and bomb attack on his home and has been living stateside ever since.

In 2000, a US immigration judge denied McAllister’s claim for asylum, and a subsequent appeal was also denied. However, President Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, broke with the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals and sided with the Irishman.

Earlier this year, McAllister was granted a six-month stay after bipartisan intervention from politicians including NY Senator Chuck Schumer, and NY Congressman Peter King.

Sen. Schumer said in a statement at the time: “Mr. McAllister is a valued member of the Irish American community who has done nothing but productive things since seeking asylum here following an assassination attempt on him and his family during the Troubles. It achieves no positive benefit for America to deport him.”

A leaked email obtained by The Washington Examiner revealed that Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of Homeland Security, had granted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s request not to deport an Irishman convicted of terrorist offenses.

Read more: Republican prisoner “spent” after years of fighting deportation to Ireland

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Chuck Schumer.

In response to the six-month stay being granted, the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), of which McAllister is an active member, expressed their gratitude but indicated that the fight was not yet over.

AOH President McKay’s letter reads:

“I write to you [Mr. President] to request a stay of deportations for one of our members Malachy McAllister and his family currently scheduled for November 29, 2019.

“Mr. McAllister’s situation was eloquently summarized by your sister, Judge Maryanne Trump-Barry, in issuing her opinion in the case McAllister v. Atty. Gen, 444 F.3d 178 in which she made an unprecedented appeal to the Attorney General:

“‘It simply should not be that, particularly in circumstances such as those we now have before us, the individual and his individuality are largely, if not entirely, irrelevant, lost in a sea of dispositive definitions and harsh and complex laws. And we cannot be the country we should be if, because of the tragic events of September 11th, we knee-jerk remove decent men and women merely because they may have erred at one point in their lives. We should look a little closer; we should care a little more. I would ask — no, I would implore — the Attorney General to exercise his discretion and permit this deserving family to stay.’

“Mr. McAllister has never denied that he served time in a Northern Ireland prison for actions he took as a youth during ‘the Troubles’ some 36 years ago. Mr. McAllister fully discharged his obligation under the presiding judicial system, being released early due to his good behavior.  Shortly thereafter, Loyalist paramilitaries sprayed his family's home with automatic weapons fire, barely missing his young children and mother-in-law. Mr. McAllister and his family fled Belfast and came to the United States seeking the promise of refuge from persecution and violence that America has traditionally offered the oppressed.   During his time in the United States, Mr. McAllister has complied with all U.S. law, started two successful job-producing businesses, and, due to the untimely death of his first wife, raised two families with children and grandchildren who are American citizens.

“Throughout Mr. McAllister’s asylum application and appeal, eminent jurists such as Judge Trump-Barry have observed that justice in the case of Mr. McAllister is being sacrificed on the altar of the law.  While denying Mr. McAllister’s asylum request, Judge Henry S. Dogin characterized the attack on the McAllister home as ‘the most striking and blatant act of persecution, and the one that undoubtedly stands on its own as evidence of past persecution.’

“The case of Malachy McAllister is indeed a case of justice being “lost in a sea of dispositive definitions.”  It is for this reason the McAllister case has achieved what has sadly become an all too rare occurrence in our current government: bipartisan and bicameral consensus to rectify a case where the law does not represent justice.  There is currently legislation in both houses of Congress to provide relief to the McAllister family.

“We ask your assistance Mr. President, as our nation’s Chief Executive, to provide the space needed for the legislative process to work in the cause of justice by issuing an order staying the 11/29/19 deportation of Malachy McAllister.”

A Facebook page, 'Keep Malachy McAllister in the US,' has been sharing updates about the Irish man's battle.