Bahraini Who Wed Marine Can Stay in America

A member of the ruling family of Bahrain who eloped with a Marine and attempted to sneak into the United States has won her fight to stay, officials said Thursday.

“I feel great, I’m so relieved,” said Meriam Al-Khalifa, whose struggle to avoid deportation attracted international attention. “It’s been very hard the last year and a half. Now I can begin my life. I love America!”

In a deal arranged with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Al-Khalifa and her husband, former Marine Pvt. Jason Johnson, crossed from El Paso to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Thursday.

The 19-year-old sheika asked the U.S. Consulate there for permission to return to the United States. With advance INS approval, permission was granted and Al-Khalifa got her green card allowing her to remain permanently in this country.

The deal, approved by Adele J. Fasano, INS district director in San Diego, spares the government the possibility of a high-profile trial in which Al-Khalifa would have sought political asylum on grounds that she would face persecution, possibly death, if returned to her country.

Human rights activists have alleged that conservative factions in Bahrain threaten women who consort with non-Muslim men.

INS spokeswoman Lauren Mack said that the visa application process is open to any spouse of a citizen and that Al-Khalifa got no preferential treatment.

She said the decision to grant the application was made after government attorneys determined there was conflicting evidence to support the key charge against her: that she presented forged documents when she and Johnson landed at the airport in Chicago on Nov. 2, 1999, on a flight from London.

Al-Khalifa’s attorney, Jan Bejar, told reporters in San Diego that her client did not present phony papers on arrival. “There was no malice, just a naive attempt to enter the country,” he said.

The couple fled Bahrain, where Johnson was stationed, when her family demanded that she end the relationship. Al-Khalifa’s father is a second cousin to the ruling emir.

To fool airport guards in Bahrain, Al-Khalifa dressed in oversized clothes, pulled a Yankees cap over her eyes and flashed a phony Marine identification card that Johnson and his friends had made.

The couple are now married and living in Las Vegas, where they are writing a book on their travails.

The case drew international attention and inspired a TV movie that was billed as “Romeo and Juliet set against Desert Storm.” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) had urged the INS to allow Al-Khalifa to remain in the United States.

Bahraini officials have insisted that Al-Khalifa would have been in no danger if she had returned to her country as her family wanted. After initially using diplomatic channels to demand her return, the family dropped the request.

Al-Khalifa said she has e-mailed some family members but has not communicated with her parents since she eloped. “I’m hoping someday that Mom and Dad and I will speak,” she said. “It’s very sad. I want them back in my life. I hope it works out.”

After leaving Bahrain, Johnson, 26, was stationed at Camp Pendleton, where the couple lived in government housing. For helping Al-Khalifa leave her country without permission, he was reduced in rank. Later, he got an honorable discharge before his term of enlistment was completed.

Al-Khalifa said that, with her green card, she can enroll at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and study accounting. Her husband may also enter college, she said.