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

Malachy McAllister has been ordered to report to ICE on November 29 where he expects to be deported

Malachy McAllister, a native of Belfast in Northern Ireland, has revealed that he has been ordered to report to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on November 29 where he believes he will be deported.

Read More: Trump to allow Malachy McAllister to stay

Speaking with The Irish Echo, McAllister said: “I must report to an ICE office in Newark Airport at 3.30 p.m." on November 29.

“ICE agents will escort me to the plane and accompany me on the flight to Dublin. No family members will be allowed to travel with me."

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.

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

Read More: Senator Schumer makes last-ditch effort to block McAllister deportation

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.

Judge Barry wrote: "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.”

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.

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:

Read More: Irish American group condemn deportation of former Republican prisoner

McAllister further told The Irish Echo this week: “It is clear to me that DHS wants me to suffer the indignity and the spectacle of being deported and banned from the U.S. forcing my partner and son to leave and depriving me from ever returning to the U.S. to visit my children and grandchildren.

"This is a slap in the face to Irish America and congressional leaders who have supported me and the Good Friday Agreement, especially retiring congressman Peter King who has championed my cause since 1997 and has been instrumental in bringing peace to Northern Ireland.

“We should be moving beyond recrimination.

“If I’m deported back to Ireland thirty-one years after my family and I fled for our lives it will be gut-wrenching, to say the least, and will make absolutely no sense and be profoundly unjustified.

“My family and I were lucky to survive the attempted assassination at our home in Belfast in 1988, but our journey to safety, as many know, hasn’t been easy.

“I love this country and I will do whatever it takes to remain here with my children and grandchildren and I’m asking Irish America to stay engaged and stand with me.”

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

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