home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=93TT1972>
- <title>
- July 05, 1993: Why Not Just Deport Him?
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- July 05, 1993 Hitting Back At Terrorists
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- COVER, Page 25
- Why Not Just Deport Him?
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> With authorities reluctant to jail the troublesome cleric Sheik
- Omar Abdel Rahman, local politicians are wondering--Why not
- kick him out? The answer is, It's not so easy. A year after
- he entered the U.S. in 1990, the Immiand Naturalization Service,
- unaware of his revolutionary past, granted him a "green card,"
- or permanent resident alien status. When the ins found out,
- it rescinded the card--and began a nearly interminable process.
- In March an immigration judge found him deportable; Abdel Rahman
- appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals in Washington,
- where a ruling can take from six months to two years; if it
- rules against the sheik, he can appeal to a federal district
- court, and on up to the Supreme Court. And all this would be
- notwithstanding his additional claim for political asylum. "It
- takes so long," notes immigration expert Muzaffar Chishti, "because
- of our due-process system." Depending on one's stand on immigration
- and the law, that system is either a blessing or a curse. In
- Abdel Rahman's case, the smartest thing may be to leave him
- in New Jersey, under surveillance. Who knows how many more terrorist
- plots might be revealed that way?
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-