1 May 2008 Edition
US appeals Pearson asylum ruling
By Mick Naughton
On Monday of this week the US government's Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS), appealed against a political asylum ruling which allowed former Irish POW Brian Pearson from Tyrone to stay in the US.
The INS appealed the 43 page written verdict of Federal Judge Philip Williams, which granted political asylum to Pearson.
Judge Williams held in that landmark ruling that Pearson's imprisonment in the Six Counties for an attack on an RUC barracks was a ``political offence'', legally different from that defined as ``terrorism'' or an ``aggravated felony''.
Pearson, who has lived quite openly in Rockland County, New York since 1988, is married to an American citizen and is the father of an American daughter. His case, and those of six other families have won widespread support in the House of Congress, the Irish American community and in the US press.
Pearson's trial attorney, Martin Galvin, described the latest INS move as a ``last minute manoeuvre which is legally, politically and morally wrong.''
Galvin said that the evidence about the true nature of Britain's war in Ireland and the persecution which Pearson could face from loyalists and the British was overwhelming.
``Politically, this is a missed opportunity to resolve the Pearson case and the six other Irish political deportation cases. These proceedings are being prolonged because American justice is being subordinated to British interests.''
On Monday of this week the US government's Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS), appealed against a political asylum ruling which allowed former Irish POW Brian Pearson from Tyrone to stay in the US.
The INS appealed the 43 page written verdict of Federal Judge Philip Williams, which granted political asylum to Pearson.
Judge Williams held in that landmark ruling that Pearson's imprisonment in the Six Counties for an attack on an RUC barracks was a ``political offence'', legally different from that defined as ``terrorism'' or an ``aggravated felony''.
Pearson, who has lived quite openly in Rockland County, New York since 1988, is married to an American citizen and is the father of an American daughter. His case, and those of six other families have won widespread support in the House of Congress, the Irish American community and in the US press.
Pearson's trial attorney, Martin Galvin, described the latest INS move as a ``last minute manoeuvre which is legally, politically and morally wrong.''
Galvin said that the evidence about the true nature of Britain's war in Ireland and the persecution which Pearson could face from loyalists and the British was overwhelming.
``Politically, this is a missed opportunity to resolve the Pearson case and the six other Irish political deportation cases. These proceedings are being prolonged because American justice is being subordinated to British interests.''