The Case of the LA Eight: A Failed Attempt by the U.S. Government to Remove Noncitizens on Political Grounds

The case of Mahmoud Khalid is not the first case in which the U.S. government stands accused of targeting a noncitizen for removal based on pro-Palestinian political activities. 

Henry Weinstein in this November Los Angeles Times article summarizes the legal machinations that “[e]nd[ed] a controversial 20-year campaign to expel immigrants because of their ties to alleged Palestinian terrorists.”  The U.S.  governments agreed to abandon its attempts to deport the last two members of the “L.A. 8.”

The Board of Immigration Appeals at that time dismissed deportation charges against Khader M. Hamide and Michel I. Shehadeh, who had been in deportation proceedings since 1987. 

“The case, which placed seven Palestinian men and a Kenyan woman in legal and personal limbo for more than two decades, foreshadowed government efforts after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to ferret out potentially dangerous Muslim militants in the U.S.”

David Cole looks critically at the LA 8 case in this article in The Nation.

KJ