16-Year Effort to Deport Pair Hits Key Point

For 16 years, the government has been trying to deport Khader Hamide, a coffee salesman from Chino Hills and an advocate of a Palestinian state.

His case, which has been up and down the federal court system several times, led to a major federal appeals court ruling on the right of freedom of association for noncitizens.

Today, the battle may finally come to a head. Federal immigration Judge Bruce J. Einhorn has set today as the deadline for the government either to state its intention to attempt to deport Hamide, 49, and his friend Michel Shehadeh, 47, or drop the case.

Despite several legal defeats, Washington so far has refused to back off in its effort to deport Hamide, an Arab Christian who has lived in the United States for 32 years, and seven colleagues -- six Palestinian men and a Kenyan woman who is Hamide’s wife.

“The L.A. 8,” as they were dubbed, have been in legal limbo since 1987, when they were accused of being members of the terrorist wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The case has become a major political symbol for many Arab Americans and civil liberties advocates. Rep John Conyers (D-Mich.), the ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, for example, has urged officials to drop the matter to eliminate a “grave civil liberties concern because the government’s case appears to be grounded on political association with no allegation of actual criminal activity.”

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, Conyers emphasized, “This case is an important political symbol for the Arab American community and source of considerable political resentment at a time when we have asked the cooperation of this community.”

The eight were arrested at gunpoint in dawn raids at their homes Jan. 26, 1987, and jailed because they had been “affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP], an organization that advocated ... world communism through written or printed publications.”

They denied membership in the group, and were released on bail after three weeks. Within three months, the government dropped subversion charges against six of the eight, accusing them instead of overstaying student and temporary visas and, in one instance, of failing to notify the Immigration and Naturalization Service of a school transfer.

Within months of the arrest, William H. Webster, former director of the FBI, said that after a three-year investigation, agents had not found any evidence that the L.A. 8 had engaged in terrorism.

The immigrants have won many legal victories, including a ruling that resident aliens have the same broad free speech rights as citizens. In 1988, U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson also struck down key provisions of the McCarran-Walter Act, a McCarthy-era law that permitted the government to deport noncitizens for their political views. Wilson, an appointee of President Reagan, rebuffed the Justice Department’s contention that when it comes to deportation, the Bill of Rights is irrelevant.

“In this case,” Wilson wrote, “the government is trying to stifle certain ideas from entering our society through certain aliens through its immigration power. Our society, however, was built on the premise that only through the free flow of ideas can our nation grow and prosper.”

Seven months later, the Justice Department filed new charges against Hamide and Shehadeh, whom the government considered the ringleaders. This time, they were accused of “membership in, or affiliation with, an organization that advocates or teaches the duty or necessity or propriety of the unlawful assaulting or killing of government officials.” Again, the charges referred to the PFLP.

Hamide, clearly a subject of strong concern to the FBI, was a lawful permanent resident who had applied for citizenship just weeks before he was arrested in 1987. The bureau suggested he be deported because he was “intelligent, aggressive, dedicated and shows great leadership ability,” according to documents introduced in the case.

In 1995, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Wilson’s ruling that resident aliens have the same free speech rights as citizens. The appeals court said that, under Supreme Court precedents, the assigning of “guilt by association” violates the 1st Amendment. The appeals court said the government had failed to show that the immigrants had a “specific intent” to further any illegal aims of the PFLP.

The next year, Wilson, whose decision had been upheld by a federal appellate court, ruled that the government could not deport Hamide and Shehadeh because it had selectively enforced immigration laws against them.

The 9th Circuit Court upheld that ruling too, forcing a halt to deportation proceedings. However, deportation charges remain, because in 1999 the U.S. Supreme Court divested lower federal courts of jurisdiction and sent the case back to immigration court.

Over the years, technical visa violation cases against the other six have been dropped, and three have become permanent residents. The others are now eligible for permanent residency.

In the beginning, most of the group were students, and only one had a child. Now, virtually all are married with children.

“We have become the L.A. 20,” Shehadeh joked this week.

He worked for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee for six years, but left that position last year and now owns a restaurant in Orange County.

“We are all part of the rat race, trying to survive and work and raise kids,” said Hamide. Once considered a firebrand, he traded initial public offerings on the Internet before getting into the coffee business.

Both men said they follow news from the Middle East closely and are pleased that President Bush has expressed support for a Palestinian state. Each said he wants to become a U.S. citizen.

Both maintain that they never were terrorists and say they are astonished that the government has not dropped the case against them.

“It’s amazing; it’s scary; it’s a humongous waste of taxpayers’ money. The government has pursued us for so long and the only thing we did, even according to the government, is exercise our 1st Amendment rights,” Hamide said.

“A lot of resources were put into this case,” Shehadeh said. “The resources should been put somewhere else to capture real terrorists and prevent them from attacking this country, rather than expending resources on a witch hunt that proved nothing.

“We are law-abiding citizens with a political point of view that differed from the government’s policy on the Middle East. I came here when I was 18.... My ways and my culture are American. I am a fan of the Constitution,” Shehadeh said.

Both men said that after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, government agents, who once had put them under surveillance around the clock, did not even bother to question them.

Earlier this year, immigration Judge Einhorn in Los Angeles ruled that the only pending charges against Hamide and Shehadeh were the original ones based on their political views under the McCarran Walter Act -- a provision that has been ruled unconstitutional by federal courts and later repealed by Congress.

Months ago, Einhorn ordered the Department of Homeland Security to state whether the government intended to go forward against the two men on the old charges, dismiss the case, or bring new charges under the Patriot Act, passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Neither a Department of Homeland Security spokesman nor Justice Department attorneys who have worked on the case for years returned calls seeking comment.

Georgetown University law professor David Cole, who has represented the Palestinians at no charge for years, said he hopes the Bush administration ends the case.

“Just as President Nixon could go to China, this administration could drop this case without any fear of being labeled soft on terrorism,” Cole said.