File #: Res 1237-2000    Version: * Name: McAllister Family Political Asylum
Type: Resolution Status: Adopted
Committee: Parks, Recreation, Cultural Affairs, and International Intergroup Relations
On agenda: 3/20/2000
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution urging Attorney General Janet Reno to suspend the deportation hearing and to reexamine the McAllister family's case with a view toward granting them political asylum, based on the fact that their lives would certainly be in danger were they to be deported.
Sponsors: Peter F. Vallone, Kathryn E. Freed, June M. Eisland, Helen M. Marshall, Stanley E. Michels, Wendell Foster, Kenneth K. Fisher, Guillermo Linares, Madeline T. Provenzano, Philip Reed, Eva S. Moskowitz, Martin J. Golden, Victor L. Robles, Margarita Lopez, Jose Rivera, Lucy Cruz, Walter L. McCaffrey, Christine C. Quinn, John D. Sabini
Council Member Sponsors: 19
Attachments: 1. Committee Report
Res. No. 1237 Title Resolution urging Attorney General Janet Reno to suspend the deportation hearing and to reexamine the McAllister family's case with a view toward granting them political asylum, based on the fact that their lives would certainly be in danger were they to be deported. Body By Council Members Freed, Eisland, Marshall, Michels, Foster, Fisher, Linares, Provenzano, Reed, Moskowitz, Golden, Robles, Lopez and Rivera; also Council Members Cruz, McCaffrey, Quinn and Sabini The Immigration and Naturalization Service has denied asylum to, and is now attempting to deport, Bernadette and Malachy McAllister and their four children to Northern Ireland, where their lives would be in grave jeopardy; and Whereas, The McAllister family fled for their lives in October of 1988 after Loyalist gunmen fired 25 shots into their home in Belfast, narrowly missing their children and Bernadette's mother; and Whereas, Malachy McAllister's security files were allegedly leaked to these assassins by the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the Northern Ireland police force; and Whereas, Other members of the McAllister family continue to be targets of politically motivated violence, such as Theresa Clinton, a relative of Bernadette McAllister, who was shot dead in her living room in Belfast; and Whereas, Shots were recently fired into the house of a friend of the family only a few blocks from their former home in Belfast; and Whereas, Forty-six Members of Congress, the Speaker of the New York City Council, the New York City Comptroller and the New York City Public Advocate have already expressed their support for the McAllister family; and Whereas, This Council has previously expressed its support for other Irish and Irish-American families facing deportation to Northern Ireland; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York urges Attorney General Janet Reno to suspend the deportation hearing and to reexamine the McAllister family's case with a view toward granting them political asylum, based on the fact that their lives would certainly be in danger were they to be deported. MW:bg LS#2810 D-Res.#3 3/9/00 |1013| - 2 -