A federal immigration judge has dismissed the government's attempt to deport two men who were arrested along with six other U.S. residents because of their alleged ties to Palestinian terrorists and who fought relentless efforts to force them to leave the country for 20 years.
Judge Bruce E. Einhorn of Los Angeles, in a ruling made public Tuesday, said the government had violated the constitutional rights of Khader M. Hamide and Michel I. Shehadeh by its "gross failure" to comply with his instructions to produce "potentially exculpatory and other relevant information."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday February 02, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 0 inches; 28 words Type of Material: Correction
Deportation judge: An article in Wednesday's Section A about a decision in a deportation case incorrectly identified the judge. He is Bruce J. Einhorn, not Bruce E. Einhorn.
In a scathing decision, Einhorn said the government's conduct in the case was "an embarrassment to the rule of law" that left "a festering wound on" Hamide and Shehadeh, who have been in legal and personal limbo for two decades.
The two men, both longtime legal residents of the United States, are part of a group that was dubbed "the L.A. 8" after the government launched attempts to deport them in January 1987. All eight denied that they were members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP, a radical offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organization that has taken credit for airline hijackings and car bombings in the Middle East.
Hamide and Shehadeh, as well as the others, steadfastly maintained that they were being persecuted even though their political activities -- distributing newspapers, participating in demonstrations, assisting Palestinians with human rights and medical needs, raising money for hospitals, youth clubs and day-care centers -- were lawful.
Einhorn's ruling "is a great decision that really vindicates what we have said all along," a jubilant Hamide said in an interview Tuesday. "The government spent millions of dollars and thousands of hours trying to deport us, and the only things they ever accused us of were constitutionally protected activity.
"The government should drop this case and leave us alone to lead normal lives -- if there is such a thing after a case like this -- and pursue real terrorists," said Hamide, 52, who lives in Chino Hills and is in the coffee distribution business.
Shehadeh, 50, said he was "feeling very, very good about the decision. This might be the moment we have been waiting for, for the last 20 years, a moment of relief and vindication."
But Shehadeh, who lives in Oregon, where one of his sons is in college, quickly added, "Another side of me is still cautious. After 20 years it becomes ingrained in you.... This might not be the end of it."
