By Sean O’Driscoll

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the asylum application of a former INLA member fighting his deportation to Northern Ireland.

Lawyers for Belfast native Malachy McAllister said that his legal challenge has now been exhausted and that they must find a political solution to stop the deportation of McAllister and his two children, Nicola and Sean, who now reside in New Jersey, where McAllister owns a masonry business.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the case after the 3rd Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals refused the McAllister’s asylum application, which was based on a claim that they could face Loyalist attack in Northern Ireland.

One member of the appeal court, Judge Mary-anne Trump Barry, a sister of Donald Trump, had strongly backed the McAllisters’ fight to stay in the U.S., but said that she could not find a legal remedy to their cause.

The other two judges had been strongly opposed to allowing the McAllisters to stay in the U.S.

With the Supreme Court announcement this week, the family’s lawyer Eamonn Dornan said that their hopes now lay with special McAllister legislation introduced into Congress by New Jersey Congressman Steve Rothman. The bill, now in a House subcommittee, would allow the McAllisters to file for green cards.

Dornan said that the new Democratic majority in Congress may help the family’s cause, and also said it is likely that the Department of Homeland Security would not move to deport the family while the bill is still pending.

"(He) has a very dedicated campaign team, and we believe that the congressman's bill is yet to be resolved, and that the Department of Homeland Security will respect that process," Dornan said.

McAllister, who has a previous conviction for conspiring to murder an RUC officer, fled Belfast with his family 18 years ago after Loyalists sprayed his house with gunfire.

The family’s case has been a high profile for Irish Americans and some New York and New Jersey members of Congress.