The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.18           May 5, 1997 
 
 
L.A. 8 Score Victory Against INS  

BY HARRY RING
LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has granted green cards to two of the Los Angeles 8, whom it has been trying to deport for the past decade. Meanwhile, the Justice Department, parent agency of the INS, said it would continue its effort to deport the other six people. All eight have faced the same political charges.

The decision to grant legal residency to Aiad Barakat and Naim Sharif was made, without explanation, by a special INS legalization unit. The attorney general's office said the unit is independent of the main Justice Department.

Reporting the decision, the Los Angles Times called it a "a stunning development."

The apparent disarray in the government comes after a series of setbacks to its drive to get the seven Palestinians and a Kenyan out of the country, on the basis that they are supporters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which Washington has labeled "terrorist."

Backed by the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the American Civil Liberties Union, the eight have won a federal court injunction blocking deportation while the court considers their charge that they had been targeted for illegal selective prosecution. Earlier they won a landmark civil-liberties ruling that immigrants are entitled to the same free-speech rights as citizens.

The government's particular moves against the eight have been based on differences in their legal status.

Two of them, Michel Shehadeh and Khader Hamide, were already legal residents when arrested by INS agents in 1987. To deport them, the government must first strip them of their residency status. An immigration judge was holding a hearing on this until the injunction halting the deportation was issued.

The INS has been trying to get rid of the other six by charging them with various technical visa violations.

Meanwhile, Barakat and Sharif applied for green cards. The unexpected decision to grant them residency puts the Justice Department in a particularly tight spot in its declared determination not to drop its case against Shehadeh and Hamide.

Shehadeh who is now the ADC's West Coast regional director, discussed the government's situation in a phone interview.

"Their position is absurd, crazy," he said. "The charges against us are identical. How can they give green cards to Aiad and Naim and still keep trying to take away our residency?"

Deputy Attorney General Philip Bartz insisted the Justice Department would pursue the case against the other six. He declared it proper "to remove someone from the U.S. for engaging in fund-raising activities on behalf of a terrorist organization."  
 
 
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