Holiday Gift for McAllisters.

By Tom Deignan

IT’S home for the holidays for the McAllister family.

The McAllisters received a last-minute Christmas gift on Tuesday when federal immigration officials granted Bernadette McAllister at least 30 additional days in the U.S.

McAllister and three of her children had more or less prepared to head back to their native Belfast late Tuesday, according to lawyers. A federal order had required that the family leave the U.S. by midnight December 17. Now, at the very least, the family will be able to spend Christmas together.

Bernadette’s husband Malachy, and an older son, won a separate reprieve a few weeks ago. 

The McAllisters’ lawyers are now waiting to hear from a Philadelphia court of appeals, which is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether or not the entire McAllister family will be granted political asylum once and for all.

The family fled Belfast in 1988 and later settled in New Jersey. Malachy was a well-known Nationalist and activist who spent time in prison. The family lived as undocumented immigrants, hoping to be granted political asylum.

But the family lost an asylum decision in November, and federal agents raided the McAllisters home seeking to detain Malachy. Malachy was out of town, however, and in the meanwhile solid support for the McAllisters’ dilemma formed in Congress and in the Irish American community.

McAllister eventually turned himself in, only to then win a reprieve. He was able to stay with his family, rather than in a federal detention center, awaiting the court of appeals decision. But this did not change the status of Bernadette and three other McAllister children. They faced deportation until this Tuesday.

If another 30 days passes before the McAllisters’ appeals decision in announced, lawyers will likely seek another extension.