AN influential group of Congressmen has appealed to the Clinton Administration not to seek the deportation from the United States of a former IRA member by appealing a recent court decision.
Last week a federal immigration judge blocked the efforts by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) to deport Mr Brian Pearson because he had not disclosed his conviction and 12 year sentence for his part in the IRA bombing of an RUC station in 1975. Judge Williams ruled it was a political offence and did not come under the new Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). He also said that Mr Pearson was entitled to political asylum.
The INS has 30 days to decide whether to appeal this ruling which could set a precedent for other former IRA members facing deportation.
The letter from members of Congress to the Attorney General, Ms Janet Reno, urges her to "not challenge Judge Williams's decision which is consistent with the public safety goals of the INA and furthers the Administration's goals of promoting peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland".
The letter is signed by the chairman of the International Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, Mr Ben Gilman; Representative Mr Peter King and Senators Chris Dodd, Alfonse D'Amato and Robert Torricelli.
But in a strongly worded editorial headed "Justing the IRA", the Washington Post yesterday accused Mr Pearson and his supporters of using this occasion "to boost the IRA".
The editorial says in a recent interview Mr Pearson "defended his crimes provocatively" by claiming that young people in Northern Ireland are today "faced with the same decision I made. You can do nothing, in which case I think you should hang your head in shame, or you can do something and lose your life or spend a long time in jail".
The editorial says that is "exactly wrong". In Northern Ireland, "an alternative peacemaking - has been supported by a vast majority for a long time".
