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GUEST:Michel Shehadeh, Exonerated Member of the “LA 8”

The Board of Immigration Appeals, the nation’s highest administrative body overseeing immigration cases, dismissed all charges against Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh – members of a group of Palestinian student activists who came to be known as the LA 8. In 1987, the government arrested Hamide and Shehadeh and six others, placed them in maximum security prison, and were initially charged with having associations with a Communist group – but those charges were ruled unconstitutional by a court. They were also accused of having ties to a Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) faction: the government said that because, among other things, they held fundraisers for Palestinians, Hamide and Shehadeh should be deported. The case, which went to appeal several times, was dismissed at the government’s request, which agreed to drop all charges and not seek to remove the two men in the future based on any of the political activities or associations at issues in the case. The government’s move to drop the case is being hailed as a triumph for the First Amendment rights of all immigrants.