However, the INLA has never been included on the US State Department's Terrorist Organizations List. That the INLA is not on the State Department's list demonstrates that the The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement are ignoring the procedures mandated by the Congress of the United States for identifying an organisation as "terrorist" for state purposes.

Bernadette Devlin McAlisky has called the IRSP and INLA, "the most persecuted organisation in Irish history," and the deportation of John Eddie McNicholl is but the latest example of the vicious and vindictive actions taken against the movement by the British, American, and Irish governments since its founding nearly thirty years ago.

The Irish Republican Socialist Committees of North American (IRSCNA), the organisation which represents the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP, the political wing of the INLA) in Canada and the United States issued a statement saying:

"The IRSCNA believe that the deportation of John Eddie Mc Nicholl was pursued not because he presented any threat to the people of the United States, but specifically because of his former membership in the INLA. This is most likely because of the refusal of the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and INLA to support the failed peace process which culminated in the now discredited Good Friday Agreement, as well as the outspoken opposition by the IRSP and INLA to the imperialist misadventures of the present US regime in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The INLA has been on cease-fire since Augst 22, 1998, when they recognised that there was no significant support for continuation of the tactic of armed struggle among Irish working people. Since that time, the IRSP has presented one of the most far reaching proposals for ensuring an end to violence in Ireland's occupied six counties, the Non-Aggression Pact Plan. This plan was designed to enable the working class communities on both sides of the sectarian divide--who have borne the brunt of the Troubles over almost four decades, without the intervention of the partionist governments on the island of Ireland or the involvement of foreign governments.

"Regardless of the what the INLA's present policies are, John Eddie McNicholl had been living quietly in Pennsylvania with his wife and three children for approximately fifteen years before being deported. There were no active extradition requests seeking his return to either Ireland or Britain and he had not been charged with having broken any laws while resident in the United States. Moreover, the Irish republican and republican socialist prisoners being held for offenses which took place prior to the Good Friday Agreement (GFA)--with the notable exception of fellow INLA member Dessie O Hare, who is still being held by the Dublin government--have all since been released under the terms of the GFA.

"McNicholl has a record of being a responsible and law-abiding American resident. His arrest and deportation violate both normal Homeland Security Agency and INS practice. They demonstrate not the slightest concern for the hardship imposed upon his family by the sudden change. John McNicholl's arrest and deportation were carried out in a manner which ensured the humiliation of arrest, incarceration, and being dragged through the court system with no consideration of either the changed political realities of Ireland today or of the changes McNicholl has gone through personally during his approximately fifteen years as a US resident. While normally an immigrant is served with a written notice telling him to report to the INS in about two weeks, McNicholl was taken from his home without notice, shackled and handcuffed, with no time to bring his personal affairs in order.

"The actions of the present US administration towards John Eddie McGarrigle further erode the civil liberties of all American residents and serve to demonstrate the continued disdain the American government has for the rule of law. From the stealing of a Presidential election, to an internationally condemned war of aggression against the people of Iraq, to the abrogation of existing treaties, to the violation of Geneva Conventions on prisoners of war, the present Administration and the US Government as a whole have increasingly provided a model of a descent into barbarism."

In concluding, the IRSCNA spokesperson said:

"It is imperative that Irish republicans and republican socialists in America, along with all others who seek to preserve the civil liberties of US residents and combat the trampling of those rights presently underway contact their representatives in Congress and oppose the manner in which the Adminstration continues to violate civil rights."

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