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Date Posted: 17:39:13 12/28/08 Sun GMT
Author: Lynn
Subject: "It's looking really grim for ex-Irish revolutionary" (San Antoinio Express News)


Web Posted: 12/07/2008 12:00 CST

It's looking really grim' for ex-Irish revolutionary
Recommend1By Hernán Rozemberg - Express-News

Whether he decides to stay and fight his deportation case or return to his estranged homeland, Pól Brennan's near future will likely remain confined to a prison cell.

The former member of the Irish Republican Army had lived quietly — albeit in legal limbo — in the United States for more than two decades before an immigration judge in South Texas ordered him deported last week.

Brennan, who testified in court in Harlingen to being proud of his past support of the IRA, though he regretted breaking U.S. immigration laws, was still shaken by the ruling this week.

He'll consult with his lawyer, U.S. wife and supporters to decide whether to appeal the decision or accept being deported back to Ireland or England.

Government prosecutors, who work for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the Homeland Security Department, declined comment.

The Irish government's also staying mum. Tim Reilly, vice consul in Chicago, who paid Brennan a visit last week, said he's providing assistance but would not disclose details nor opine on the case.

Brennan, however, could not hide his feelings on the matter.

“It was obviously disappointing, but I can't let it burn me,” Brennan, 55, said by phone from the immigration prison in Raymondville where he's being held. “I'll be able to deal with it no matter what happens, but I don't know about my wife — this has been so hard on her.”

The toughest part to swallow, he said, was Immigration Judge William Peterson's reasoning that, despite making a good case that he should be allowed to stay so he won't be separated from his wife, Brennan's past terrorist ties trump all other arguments and thus he must be deported.

“That part surprised everybody,” Brennan said. “It was particularly galling that he made that argument, since the prosecutors didn't even bring it up.”

Peterson also threw out Brennan's separate applications to remain in the country legally — including his political asylum request. Brennan fears for his life if he's sent back to Ireland or England.

Though he is not yet ready to make a decision on what he'll do next, Brennan's patience is growing thin after nearly a year in immigration detention. His stay in Raymondville has been particularly demoralizing, he said, since he's isolated.

The entire saga has also taken a heavy emotional toll on Joanna Volz, Brennan's wife of 19 years.

Volz has been taking care of her ill mother, who lives on South Padre Island. She said she has mixed feelings as to what her husband should do. She can't imagine suddenly trying to move to Ireland with him, especially since they don't know what will happen to him there, plus she'd have to leave her mother alone.

But she also doesn't want him to keep rotting away in perpetual detention, said Volz, 62.

“I think if he has to stay there a lot longer, it will be too much,” she said. “I'd like him to exhaust every avenue, but it's looking really grim.”

Then there are the money issues. The couple's lawyer has been working at a reduced rate and they've been able to raise about $8,000 in donations, but future appeals — first to the Board of Immigration Appeals, then to U.S. district courts — will cause mounting bills.

Brennan won't have much more time to think it over. Unless he files an appeal by Dec. 26, Peterson's order becomes final and the government can ship him out, provided the Irish or English governments are willing to take him back.

Brennan initially entered the United States with a fake identity in 1984, after taking part in a famous prison break in Ireland involving IRA activists.

After he was discovered and arrested, the British government declined to extradite him and the U.S. government essentially looked the other way by allowing him to stay in the country with renewable yearly work permits.

But he had not yet received a new one in January when he and Volz were stopped by Border Patrol agents at a highway checkpoint in Sarita as they returned home to San Francisco after visiting Volz' mother.

Agents determined he was in the U.S. without a valid permit and thus in the country illegally, setting off his arrest and subsequent detention that culminated in Judge Peterson's deportation order.

The case was highly unusual for the obscure immigration court system, administered by the Justice Department, which doesn't usually see cases involving overseas expert witnesses.

“The respondent's case is truly exceptional,” Judge Peterson noted in his 32-page decision.

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