FYI. "Man's Release Leads to Hope in I.N.S. Cases" By Ronald Smothers For the full article, please see http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/regional/nj-immig-detain.html "When the guards came to his cell on Monday night, he held out his arms for the manacles as usual. "But when he heard the whispered words 'Pack up' and was led out of the Hudson County Correctional Center to the cold, empty street, Hany Kiareldeen realized that his long, dark odyssey through the immigration system was over. "Kiareldeen, 31, a Palestinian immigrant, was released Monday night after a 19-month sojourn in two New Jersey jails. ". A series of immigration court and Federal court rulings had found that the evidence was unreliable and that its use was unconstitutional, and on Monday the Immigration and Naturalization Service decided to stop fighting judges' orders that Kiareldeen be freed. "His release and the court rulings have for now given hope to supporters of some 20 other people of Arab descent being held on secret evidence from anonymous sources that the immigration agency will finally have to scrap a practice it has used since the 50's. ". 'Bittersweet' was how some immigrant advocates and Arab-American groups described the release of Kiareldeen, as they took note of the continued detention of others. " 'But I'm hoping this case will initiate the Government's taking a closer look at what they use as secret evidence, and becoming a lot more judicious in light of the loss in this case at so many administrative and judicial levels," said Kit Gage, national coordinator of the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, a coalition of advocacy groups and ethnic and civil rights groups that came together to oppose the use of secret evidence and other immigration law provisions. "Aly R. Abuzaakouk, the executive director of the American Muslim Council, while applauding the release of Kiareldeen, said he believed it would not, on its own, force the immigration agency to rethink its use of the classified evidence to detain, deport, exclude and deny asylum to immigrants. "He said the only thing that would end those practices and repair the damage they had done to Arab-Americans and Muslims would be the passage of a bill now before Congress that would outlaw the use of secret evidence. " 'People in our community are aware of secret evidence, and it is having a chilling effect on their expressing themselves on issues," Abuzaakouk said. " 'It has created an intimidating factor, and I don't think I.N.S. will pull back on its own.' "Donald Mueller, a spokesman for the the immigration service, said the agency's decision to release Kiareldeen did not mean that it would abandon the use of secret evidence altogether. ".But Representative David E. Bonior, a Michigan Democrat and the prime sponsor of the Secret Evidence Repeal Act of 1999, said the only effective solution would be to eradicate the practice. " 'Hany's Kiareldeen's release will be a hollow victory unless we permanently discard this law,' he said today in an interview, referring to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act as well as the Immigration Reform Act, both of 1996. ." From the Associated Press, October 27, 1999: "Freed immigrant in secret evidence case hopes to become citizen" By Jeffrey Gold " A struggle against government evidence he was not allowed to see cost Hany Mahmoud Kiareldeen 19 months of liberty and possibly his marriage, but the Palestinian immigrant says he will pursue citizenship. "Because I am proud of America. I like America because it is a free country," Kiareldeen said Tuesday, his first day of freedom in a case that his advocates hailed as the third blow this year against the use of secret evidence. ".Kiareldeen, 31, said he would probably try to force the government to provide him copies of the secret evidence, which he and his lawyers have never seen. "Seven immigration judges did, however, and found it did not support the allegations, was insufficient to warrant his detention, and did not bar him from getting his green card. He was freed about midnight Monday from the Hudson County Jail just after the U.S. Justice Department announced it had dropped efforts to deport him. "Its decision followed a bombshell ruling last week from a federal judge here, who said such evidence was unconstitutional and ordered Kiareldeen freed. ".Despite the secret evidence, and the INS insistence that he threatened national security, he was never charged with a terrorist act. The FBI closed its investigation in July. " 'We need to be skeptical of government claims of national security,' said David Cole, a Georgetown law professor who worked for Kiareldeen and others jailed over secret evidence. ".Supporters of Kiareldeen and others accused on the basis of secret evidence said they hope the government ends the practice. " 'American Muslims feel that the secret evidence issue has targeted our community,' said Shirin Sinnar, a spokeswoman for the American Muslim Council . 'The government in an overzealous pursuit of national security has sometimes trespassed on people's rights.' "Advocates say Kiareldeen is the first of about two dozen people, nearly all Arab or Muslim, detained by secret evidence to win release. ".A Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied any anti-Arab bias, and said that although it was not pursuing the Kiareldeen case, it would still use secret evidence in 'certain narrowly drawn cases.'" **CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES AND ASK THEM TO SUPPORT THE SECRET EVIDENCE REPEAL ACT OF 1999, H.R. 2121 >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------