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Daily Press – June 8, 2007
Palestinian Immigrant released after
nearly four years in jail
FARMVILLE, Va. -- A Palestinian man jailed for nearly four years on an immigration violation was released from a Virginia jail Friday after a federal judge ruled that his constitutional rights had been violated.
Majed Talat Hajbeh was taken by federal immigration officials from the Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville Friday morning, jail superintendent Lewis Barlow said.
Hajbeh's wife, Najwa Abualhija, said he remained in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at 4:15 p.m. but was expecting him to be dropped off at their northern Virginia home.
Last month a federal judge in Norfolk ruled that Hajbeh had to be released because the government, which wants to deport him, had taken too long to find a country that would take him.
U.S. District Court Judge Jerome B. Friedman said in his order issued May 25 that the government violated Hajbeh's constitutional rights and that he must be released by June 8.
Hajbeh, a Palestinian by birth who was raised in Jordan, was arrested and detained in 2003 in a sweep of suspected immigration violators. An immigration judge ordered him deported, reasoning that Hajbeh entered incorrect information on papers when he entered the United States in 1993. Hajbeh said he made a mistake when he checked "single" instead of "married."
The judge did not take into account that Hajbeh was acquitted in federal court of a criminal charge of falsifying the document.
The government had tried to deport him to Jordan, where he was convicted in absentia in 1999 of plotting the bombings of an American school and other targets. The Jordanian government later overturned the convictions of his co-defendants, but his conviction stands because he has never returned to Jordan. U.S. officials have also unsuccessfully tried to get Israel to take Hajbeh and allow him to live in the Palestinian territories.
Hajbeh argued the conviction was invalid. The departments of Justice and Homeland Security had fought to keep him in jail, contending he is a danger to the community based on the conviction.
The deportation order was suspended because of evidence that Hajbeh would face torture if returned to Jordan. Immigration authorities have been searching for another country where he could live freely with his family…..
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va--immigrantrelease0608jun08,0,2902297.story
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