|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
[Previous entry: "Visa Bulletin for November 2004"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Department of Labor Memo to State Workforce Agencies Administrators on FY 2005 Transition"] 10/20/2004 Entry: "Government Moves to Strip Citizenship from Former Holy Land Foundation Board Member" The Dallas-based office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has filed a highly unusual civil court motion to strip a wealthy North Texas businessman of his American citizenship and eventually deport him to his native Middle East.
Oct 18, 2004 6:11 pm US/Central The Dallas-based office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has filed a highly unusual civil court motion to strip a wealthy North Texas businessman of his American citizenship and eventually deport him to his native Middle East. CBS-11 News has learned that federal authorities have invoked a rarely-used federal statute – mainly used in past decades to deport former Nazis - to de-naturalize native Palestinian Rasmi Khader Almallah. The government's “Complaint to Revoke Naturalization” claims Almallah paid a woman for a “sham marriage” in 1981 that helped him gain permanent residency and then American citizenship in 1988. But sources tell CBS-11 the motive behind the government effort is Almallah’s long association with the Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation, which the Bush administration shuttered in 2001 and accused of clandestinely providing funds to help the designated terrorist group Hamas deploy suicide bombers against Israeli civilians. Almallah, since remarried, the father of seven U.S.-born children, and the founding owner of the booming 50-store Carpet Mills of America chain, served as a board member of the Holy Land Foundation, according to a 2000 foundation tax return. He has maintained close ties to top foundation officers who the government in July criminally indicted on charges that their fundraising work supported suicide bombings against Israeli citizens. Almallah also has served as an officer of the Islamic Association of Palestine, which has come under federal investigation for alleged – and vigorously disputed – terrorist ties. But Almallah was not among the seven men indicted in Dallas this summer for their Holy Land Foundation fundraising work, and he has not been charged with any crime. Almallah did not respond to repeated interview requests. His wife declined to comment during a visit by CBS-11 to the family’s well-appointed Richardson home, not far from the former Holy Land Foundation offices. An attorney for Almallah could not be located. Since 9-11, Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Department of Justice has invoked a variety of legal means, short of time-consuming - and politically risky - criminal charges, to remove Middle Easterners suspected of ties to terrorism or its financial infrastructure. The government, for instance, has deported several former Holy Land Foundation employees for immigration law violations in recent years, rather than criminally prosecute them. In the recent deportation case against former Holy Land Foundation fundraiser Aynan Ismail, covered exclusively by CBS-11, government attorneys actually cited terrorism as grounds to send him to Jordan, but never attempted to try him on criminal charges. He was deported last month. Government officials in Dallas have openly acknowledged the Bush administration's use of alternative means to get suspected Middle Eastern terrorists out of the country. Immigration law experts tell CBS-11 News that use of the de-naturalization statutes has been rare. Prior to the 9-11 terror attacks, the statutes were invoked mainly as a means to deport former Nazis who were discovered to have illegally gained American citizenship by lying on application materials about their pasts. But since 9-11, although still very rare, a number of denaturalization lawsuits have been brought against Middle Eastern Americans suspected of terrorist ties. In September, a federal judge in Akron, Ohio revoked the citizenship status of Muslim cleric Fawaz Mohammed Damrah. The government had accused Damrah of concealing on his citizenship application his memberships and affiliations with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Islamic Committtee for Palestine and the Al-Kifah aka Afghan Refugee Services. A criminal indictment alleged Damrah concealed the fact that he had "incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of Jews by advocating and supporting violent terrorist attacks. Damrah is appealing his de-naturalization to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The lawsuit against Almallah would be the first such case brought against any Middle Easterner in the Northern District of Texas. Specifically, he is accused of paying Rose Marie Hawley, a United States citizen, to marry him on December 21, 1981 and help him gain permanent resident status, a required prelude to full citizenship. The government's lawsuit says the couple never lived together as husband and wife, although during a interview with the INS for permanent residence, "defendant testified...specifically that he and Ms. Hawley resided together as husband and wife. "That representation was false." The lawsuit continues: "Contrary to his representation...defendant never resided with Ms. Hawley. Defendant's misrepresentation was material to his application for status as permanent resident. Accordingly, defendant procured his permanent residence by fraud or by willful misrepresentation and concealment of a material fact." Immigration experts say the proceedings against him may fit an emerging government pattern in which de-naturalization becomes a more frequently used weapon in the Bush administration's domestic war on terror. "Since 9-11, we’re seeing more prosecutions and more attempts to take away people’s citizenship on the basis of memberships in organizations,” Dallas immigration attorney Kenneth Wincorn said. To comment on this story, email Todd Bensman
|
