U.S. authorities reconsider asylum for Palestinian family
The family, which was slated for deportation, is being held at a number of detention facilities in Texas.
By Associated PressA federal immigration panel ruled that escalating violence in the Palestinian territories since Hamas came to power was grounds to reconsider the asylum request of a Palestinian family who remain in Texas detention centers while awaiting deportation.
The order issued Friday by the federal Board of Immigration Appeals comes more than two years after the Ibrahim family's initial request for asylum was denied. Joshua Bardavid, a lawyer for the family, said he expects the Ibrahims to be released and reunited within a week to three weeks now that the case is being reopened.
In their ruling, the board said the family presented sufficient evidence that the Palestinian territories are controlled by the militant Islamic group Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist group.
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in internal violence since Hamas, which rejects Israel's right to exist, won parliamentary elections in January 2005 and ousted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' more moderate Fatah movement from power.
It is clear that conditions have changed in the Palestinian territories, the order stated.
Immigration officers arrested the Ibrahim family on Nov. 2 during a raid on their Dallas-area apartment and they have been held awaiting deportation since then.
Salaheddin Mahd Ibrahim, 37, is being held at a jail in Haskell, near Abilene. His wife Hanan, 34, who is five months pregnant, has been incarcerated at a detention center in Taylor, Texas, along with four of her children, ages 5 to 15.
The family also has another child, 3-year-old Zahra, who is a U.S. citizen because she was born in the United States, and is living with an uncle in the Dallas area.
We're actually floating on air, Bardavid said. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We're thrilled for the Ibrahims.
Bardavid said he did not know how long the family's new petition for asylum would take to be resolved.
The Ibrahims, who formerly lived in the West Bank city of Nablus, arrived with temporary Jordanian passports and visas in September 2001. They applied for asylum shortly after, citing the violence in their homeland. But a judge denied their petition in January 2003 and ordered their deportation in an order that became final in August 2004.
Before Friday's order, lawyers for the Ibrahims said the family was willing to accept deportation in order to be reunited but said they had nowhere to go. The family has applied to more than 50 countries for asylum.
Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Dallas declined to comment on the case, citing the pending litigation.
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Many thanks to Mark Lincoln of Huoston,Phil, KT of NM and Yosemite. Your reply makes sense, the rest of the respondents are blood suckers, racist and should go home themselves. For those individuals who wrote to deport the family; if are US citizen, you have to look at where you came from, even if you live in the Zionist State of Israel, they also should go back to the slums of Poland. Your government with the assistant of the ?Israeli Occupied? US Congress is subjecting the Palestinians to live in Nazi type brutal occupation.
Hi Kt .. I merely pointed out to tejano that his post is based on an inaccurate reading of the article.. If you call a desire for informed commentary "ranting" that's unfortunate and a poor reflection on yourself
Does this mean that the US should grant asylum to all 2 and a half million or so Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza? And Tejano, despite the rantings of #2, who is from where?, you are right on. It is not that easy for Palestinians to get legitimate Jordanian passports. It isn't even very easy for them to be allowed into Jordan for a visit, because Jordan has more Palestinians than it can sustain.
The immigration laws of the United States allow the admission of persons who if they would be deported had sound reason to believe that they would be subjected to persecution or death.
A Palestinian family that is Anti-Terrorist? Let them stay!
Hispanico, y con mucho orgullo. And I still say let them go to Jordan.
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070129/481/ist80101292058 This guy makes $400,000 a year TOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny!
This is a great news. We need more to leave.
Texas is Tejas in Spanish. 'Tejano' as in from Texas? To be more exact the 'go home'is usually directed at 'Tejanos' that are Mexican. Unless of course the blood of Mexico Lindo does not REALLY run in your veins. Make aliyah compadre!
If you fully read the article.. which you obviously didn't ... you would have noticed that it does not state the reasons why the family made their original asylum application What the article does say is that their application is now being reconsidered in light of the current situation i.e. " that the Palestinian territories are controlled by the militant Islamic group Hamas" Like many posters your statements are based on a misreading (either willful or just through pure laziness) of the actual article you are commenting on
If they had Jordanian passports, even temporary they are Jordanians. They arrived in the US prior to the Hamas-Fatah shootings so this is a poor excuse. Go home to live with your own.