LA 8: Victory In 20-Year Effort For Equality Under The Law
The 20-year effort to deport two men over their alleged political support of Palestinian self-determination officially came to an end on Oct. 31 when the nation's highest administrative body overseeing immigration cases dismissed all charges against Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh. The two men were members of the LA 8, a group of Palestinian student activists arrested in January 1987.
The action by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) closes one of the nation's longest-running and most controversial deportation cases, one that tested whether immigrants have the same First Amendment rights as citizens.
The ACLU of Southern California worked with attorneys for the National Lawyers Guild and the Center for Constitutional Rights on this case.
Hamide and Shehadeh expressed both relief and happiness that the case is finally over, but also anger over what they believed to be a politically motivated, baseless prosecution.
"My family and I feel a tremendous amount of relief today," said Hamide. "After 20 years, the nightmare is finally over. "This is a victory not only for us, but for the First Amendment of the Constitution and for the rights of all immigrants."
Shehadeh shared similar feelings of relief and mixed emotions over the two-decade ordeal in the government's immigration system.
"They robbed us, and our families, of the best and most productive years of our lives," Shehadeh said. "We are now free to continue living our lives, acting on our own beliefs, raising our families, supporting our communities, loving our country, defending justice and the Constitution, and prospering as good citizens."
The case against the pair began in 1987, when the government arrested them and six others, placed them in maximum security prison and accused them of having ties to a faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The government alleged that Hamide and Shehadeh distributed newspapers, held demonstrations and organized humanitarian aid fundraisers for Palestinians, and that because these actions supported the PLO, they should be deported. The men were initially charged with being associated with a Communist organization, but when a court declared those charges to be unconstitutional, the government filed new charges of material support for a terrorist group. The case went before the U.S. Court of Appeals four times and the Supreme Court of the United States once.
The BIA dismissed the case at the request of the government, which agreed in a settlement to drop all charges and not to seek removal of either of the men in the future based on any of the political activities or associations at issue in the case. Hamide and Shehadeh agreed not to apply for citizenship for three years, and to have several judicial orders in the case vacated as moot.
The tipping point in the case came in January 2007, when Immigration Judge Bruce J. Einhorn dismissed the case, finding that the government's refusal to turn over evidence favorable to the men violated their right to due process. The government's refusal to comply with his disclosure order, Einhorn wrote, is "a festering wound on the body of respondents and an embarrassment to the rule of law."
The case originally involved seven Palestinians and a Kenyan who is the wife of Hamide. Late last year Aiad Barakat, one of the LA 8, was sworn in as a U.S. citizen after a federal judge rejected the government's contention that he should be denied citizenship for his political associations. All of the other members of the LA 8 have either been granted permanent residency or are on track to become permanent residents.
"We are gratified that the government has decided to terminate this case and to spend its resources on genuine threats to our national security," said Ahilan T. Arulanantham, an ACLU/SC staff attorney. "Hamide and Shehadeh are law-abiding immigrants who have lived here for more than a quarter century each and done nothing wrong. We are glad that they will be able to live out the rest of their lives in peace in the country they have called home."
DECEMBER 2007
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