Judge to Rule on Validity of U.S. Effort to Deport Aliens

In what could be a decisive ruling in the emotionally charged case of eight Los Angeles-area aliens arrested 30 months ago on subversion charges, a federal judge announced here Wednesday that he will hold a trial to decide whether the immigrants are being unconstitutionally prosecuted because of their political beliefs.

Attorneys for the aliens were elated.

“Now we’ll finally get our day in court,” said immigration lawyer Marc Van Der Hout of the National Lawyers Guild.

“This is a major issue that could end these (immigration) proceedings,” added Paul L. Hoffman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Justice Department lawyers did not comment on the ruling by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson, which came at the end of an afternoon hearing.

The aliens’ attorneys estimated that the nonjury trial could begin as soon as October or November.

Wilson’s ruling means that, for the first time, lawyers for the aliens--seven Palestinians and a Kenyan--will have an opportunity to question FBI and immigration officials about why the aliens were rounded up in January, 1987.

Since then, the aliens and their lawyers have been mired in maneuvering with Justice Department attorneys while fighting deportation proceedings in U.S. Immigration Court in Los Angeles.

None of the eight--originally accused of belonging to a Marxist faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization with a history of terrorism overseas--has been charged with criminal acts. All have denied belonging to the faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The basis of the government’s subversion charges against the eight, who were accused of being national security risks, was the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act.

Since 1987, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has dropped noncriminal subversion charges against six of the eight, accusing them only of visa violations.

Still accused of subversion are the two lead defendants, Khader Hamide, 35, of Los Angeles, and Michel Shehadeh, 33, of Long Beach.

Wilson’s ruling Wednesday was seen by the aliens’ attorneys as a major opportunity to finally see the government’s evidence against their clients.

The deportation battle before Immigration Judge Ingrid K. Hrycenko has produced plenty of angry words and confrontations. But, thus far, no hard evidence has been presented supporting the 1987 arrests, which attracted nationwide attention.

Only last week, for example, the aliens’ lawyers finally glimpsed some of the case’s roots. It came in the form of declassified documents revealing that some of the aliens were the target of FBI telephone surveillance in the Los Angeles area at least two years before their arrests.

In a 1985 declaration accompanying the just-released documents, Los Angeles FBI Agent Frank N. Knight said that Hamide was involved in “activities . . . in support of international terrorism under the aegis of the PFLP.”

Hamide has denied this.

Opportunity Seen

Now, because of Wilson’s ruling, said immigration lawyers, a window of opportunity has been opened to finally learn how the case evolved.

“We will get a chance to show that it is a politically motivated prosecution,” Hoffman told reporters after Wednesday’s hearing.

At issue before Wilson in the upcoming trial will be whether the government initiated deportation proceedings against the eight based on their political activities on behalf of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Lawyers for the aliens argue that such “selective prosecution” by the INS violates the aliens 1st and 5th Amendment rights.

But in a brief filed last month by the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Litigation, the government argued that should Wilson take jurisdiction and hold a trial, it could lead to chaos in the nation’s immigration courts.

New Federal Action

In December, Wilson declared unconstitutional several key provisions of the McCarran-Walter Act under which the aliens were originally charged. Then, last Friday, the government filed new McCarran-Walter charges against Hamide and Shehadeh.

At a Sept. 19 hearing, Wilson will be asked by the immigrants’ lawyers to also strike down the new charges.

“I don’t see how this new section (of McCarran-Walter) is all that different than the one we ruled on,” Wilson told government lawyers at Wednesday’s hearing. “Are we going to have to deal with the entire McCarran-Walter Act piece by piece? Because that’s how you’re serving it up to us.

“You might think about that. It’s not a very appropriate way to deal with this issue.”