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Date Posted: 08:07:01 11/15/08 Sat GMT
Author: Lynn
Subject: Lawyer tells of a still dangerous N.Ireland (Houston Chronicle)

Lawyer tells of still dangerous Northern Ireland

By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press
Nov. 12, 2008, 6:11PM

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RAYMONDVILLE, Texas — A Belfast lawyer testified in a federal immigration hearing Wednesday that a former IRA militant facing deportation could be returned to prison in Northern Ireland and be in danger of revenge attacks after living 25 years in the United States.

Pol Brennan, convicted member of the Irish Republican Army and escapee from a notorious prison outside Belfast in 1983, was arrested with an expired work permit at an inland Border Patrol checkpoint in South Texas in January.
Brennan, 55, is trying to convince U.S. Immigration Judge William Peterson that he should be allowed to stay in the U.S. for either reasons of political asylum or because he married an American years ago.
For more than four hours Wednesday at the Willacy Detention Center, retired solicitor Eamann McMenamin, an expert witness for the defense, expounded on the history of a troubled Northern Ireland from the 11th-century Norman invasion up to the present day.
Asked what would happen if Brennan were deported, McMenamin said, "he would be quite a high-profile target because of the publicity." The threat would come from more than a dozen Protestant paramilitary splinter groups that continue to operate in Northern Ireland.
When Peterson asked McMenamin what could draw the attention of militant Protestant groups, he answered: "any Catholic who voices anything the Loyalist paramilitary groups don't like."
McMenamin described threats made against a playwright, a priest, a national soccer player and others who ran afoul of Protestant groups with comments in the media. He told of the partisan murders of the founding partner of his law firm and another Northern Ireland lawyer. Joanna Volz, Brennan's wife, has said that a Web site supporting Brennan's release has received threats against him.
And yet, McMenamin said that since the peace process, many Catholics have been elected into public office including some former IRA members like Brennan who escaped from prison.
The current Lord Mayor of Belfast is a member of Sinn Fein, once the political arm of the IRA.
During the testimony, Brennan, dressed in red prison garb and wearing wire-rimmed glasses, flipped through a book, fingered his wedding ring and at times inserted a date or name when McMenamin misspoke.
If Brennan were deported to Northern Ireland, he would likely return to prison, McMenamin said. Brennan could then apply for release under provisions of the accord that brought peace to Northern Ireland. He could also be prosecuted for his part in the 38-man escape from the Maze Prison in 1983.
Brennan made it to the United States the following year using an alias and settled in the Bay Area of Northern California where he met his wife and worked as a carpenter.
But in 1993, after applying for a passport under an assumed name, the FBI arrested Brennan, kicking off a seven-year fight against extradition. The FBI also found that he had purchased a gun using his alias prior to his arrest. Britain dropped its extradition request in 2000, citing Northern Ireland's 1998 Good Friday accord, which called for the accelerated release of the conflict's political prisoners.
Ever since, Brennan and about 15 other former IRA prisoners, who made their home in the United States, have lived in a legal limbo. Even though they entered the country illegally, they can renew their work permits but have not been able to get permanent immigration status.
Brennan and his wife were driving from South Padre Island to Austin in January to visit friends when they stopped at the Border Patrol's checkpoint in Sarita, about an hour north of the border.
Brennan told the agents he was not a U.S. citizen. When they saw his work permit had expired — he had applied for but not received a renewal — they ran his name in the computer and saw his unusual history. He has been in federal immigration detention centers ever since.
The hearing is scheduled to continue Thursday with Brennan taking the stand.
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