Judge Holds Up U.S. Bid to Deport ‘Subversives’

Government efforts to deport a group of immigrants once charged with subversion ran into more roadblocks Friday in Immigration Court as Justice Department attorneys admitted that they had wrongly charged one of the defendants with fraud in a subpoena.

Immigration Judge Ingrid K. Hrycenko ruled that deportation efforts aimed at two lead defendants--Khader Hamide, 35, of Los Angeles, and Michel Shehadeh, 33, of Long Beach--cannot proceed until a federal court decision affecting their cases is resolved.

Hamide and Shehadeh face subversion charges under the McCarran-Walter Act. The act, passed during the McCarthy era of the 1950s, allows the deportation of aliens for advocating world communism, totalitarian dictatorship or the unlawful destruction of property.

Last December, U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson in Los Angeles overturned several of the act’s political sections and declared that aliens have the same broad free speech rights as U.S. citizens.

Until the McCarran-Walter decision is resolved--whether through the appellate process or simply by having the government throw in the towel--Hrycenko ruled that their cases “will not proceed.”

8 Immigrants Jailed

Hamide and Shehadeh were among eight immigrants--seven Palestinians and a Kenyan--arrested in January, 1987, and jailed for almost two weeks on charges that they belonged to a Palestinian group with a history of terrorism. All denied the charges, and none were charged criminally.

Charges were eventually dropped against three other immigrants. But three more still faced lesser deportation charges--and for the first time in 27 months the government proceeded against them this week.

On Friday, a three-man team of Justice Department attorneys from Washington moved against Bashar Amer, 27, of Glendale. He is charged with not maintaining his academic status--that is, not taking 12 units a semester, as generally required by immigration rules, at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga between 1985 and 1987.

Last Monday, immigration officials subpoenaed Amer’s college records. But when Justice Department attorney Stewart Deutsch produced the subpoena for the court on Friday, it said that Amer was being investigated in connection with “a fraud against the United States.”

A surprised Hrycenko asked Deutsch how that could be possible when the charge against Amer was that he had not taken enough college credits to remain in the country.

‘Maybe It’s Sloppiness’

“There is no fraud,” Deutsch admitted. “That is an error.”

“Maybe it’s solely sloppiness,” said Hrycenko. She continued Amer’s hearing until July so that the government could change the charge.

The Los Angeles-based immigration official who signed the erroneous subpoena, John Brechtel, assistant district director for investigations, could not be reached for comment.

Amer’s lawyer, Marc Van Der Hout of the National Lawyers Guild, said he had “no reason to think (the fraud charge) wasn’t intentional” in light of the government’s continuing efforts to deport the immigrants.