Deportation Case Demonstrates Much That Is Wrong With Our Immigration “System” By Bill West

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For the past two years, the US government has been trying to deport Abdel Jabbar Hamdan, a Palestinian who the Government has charged is an illegal alien for having overstayed his nonimmigrant student visa when he first entered the United States some 27 years ago. The Government has already proven its deportation case before an Immigration Court and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), as Hamdan has been ordered removed (deported) from the United States based on the charges filed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Immigration Court and BIA have also denied Hamdan’s requests for relief from deportation. Hamdan has exercised his right to appeal his case to the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where the deportation issue currently resides. During the past two years, Hamdan has been detained by the Government pending those removal proceedings. The Government has claimed Hamdan was a key fundraiser for an Islamic charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, that has been linked by the Feds to the terrorist organization Hamas. Other Holy Land Foundation officials have been charged criminally by the Federal government with various terrorism-support related crimes and those cases are in various stages of prosecution. Hamdan was not charged with any crime, but with the noted immigration removal violation. Nonetheless, the Government sought to keep him detained due to his links to the Holy Land Foundation and alleged support to Hamas. Hamdan claimed his fund-raising was only for humanitarian purposes and has been seeking his release during the deportation case. Not surprisingly, Hamdan had a small army of supporters among various Muslim advocacy and left-wing legal groups.

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in the end, it seems unclear to me why pursuing one’s appeal rights shows that the “system” is broken.

KJ