|
Government Moves to Strip Citizenship from Holy Land Foundation Board Member
CBS-11 News has learned that federal authorities have invoked a rarely-used federal statute mainly used in past decades to deport former Nazis - to de-naturalize native Palestinian Rasmi Khader Almallah. The government's "Complaint to Revoke Naturalization" claims Almallah paid a woman for a "sham marriage" in 1981 that helped him gain permanent residency and then American citizenship in 1988. But sources tell CBS-11 the motive behind the government effort is Almallah's long association with the Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation, which the Bush administration shuttered in 2001 and accused of clandestinely providing funds to help the designated terrorist group Hamas deploy suicide bombers against Israeli civilians. Almallah, since remarried, the father of seven U.S.-born children, and the founding owner of the booming 50-store Carpet Mills of America chain, served as a board member of the Holy Land Foundation, according to a 2000 foundation tax return. He has maintained close ties to top foundation officers who the government in July criminally indicted on charges that their fundraising work supported suicide bombings against Israeli citizens. Almallah also has served as an officer of the Islamic Association of Palestine, which has come under federal investigation for alleged and vigorously disputed terrorist ties. But Almallah was not among the seven men indicted in Dallas this summer for their Holy Land Foundation fundraising work, and he has not been charged with any crime.
Immigration law experts tell CBS-11 News that use of the de-naturalization statutes has been rare. Prior to the 9-11 terror attacks, the statutes were invoked mainly as a means to deport former Nazis who were discovered to have illegally gained American citizenship by lying on application materials about their pasts.
The lawsuit against Almallah would be the first such case brought against any Middle Easterner in the Northern District of Texas. Specifically, he is accused of paying Rose Marie Hawley, a United States citizen, to marry him on December 21, 1981 and help him gain permanent resident status, a required prelude to full citizenship. The government's lawsuit says the couple never lived together as husband and wife, although during a interview with the INS for permanent residence, "defendant testified...specifically that he and Ms. Hawley resided together as husband and wife. "That representation was false."
Posted by: Steve 2004-10-21 |
|||
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=46546 |