El Al shooter got alien amnesty

Inside Washington

Killer's Wife Given Visa to Fill 'Diversity' Quota

The Egyptian national who murdered two people at the El Al airline counter in Los-Angeles International Airport on July 4 was an alien granted an amnesty by the U.S. government.

He later gained permanent residency status because his wife received a visa to come to the United States under a special immigration quota program that applies to people from the Arab Middle East and other regions that formerly did not send large numbers of immigrants to the United States.

Small limousine owner/driver Hesham Mohamed Ali Hadayet entered the United States in July 1992 on a visitor's visa good for six months, said Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) spokesman Russ Bergeron. "In December 1992, when his visa was still valid, he applied for immigration benefits," he said. "In February 1996, INS denied his requests. At that point in time, that was how long it took to adjudicate those cases."

Though Bergeron said that federal law prohibits INS from confirming the exact nature of the benefits that Hadayet applied for, Hadayet reportedly applied for asylum.

After INS denied his request, "under the law, he was entitled to have that decision reviewed, by an immigration judge," said Bergeron. "He elected to do that, so he was placed in deportation proceedings so that the decision could be reviewed by the immigration judge. While that was proceeding, his wife won the diversity lottery and, under the law, her immediate family would be eligible for permanent residency as well."

Under normal circumstances Hadayet would still have been required to leave the United States and apply for reentry with a legal visa from his native country or another foreign nation. But, under the 245(i) amnesty program that was then in force, he was able to pay $1,000 to the federal government for the privilege of staying.

"In August 1997, he became a legal permanent resident," said Bergeron. Although Hadayet was in the United States through this entire process, his wife was living in Egypt at the time she won her immigration visa in the "diversity" quota program.

Hadayet's 245(i) amnesty did not make much difference in this case, said Bergeron. "He would have had to leave and reapply to enter," he said. "With his wife's status, the wait would probably have been one to three months"

There is no reason to think that Hadayet would have been denied reentry. "He had no criminal history," said Bergeron. "His case I would describe as not unusual."

The FBI says that Hadayet "had no known connections to any terrorist organization." For illegal immigrants without 245(i), the wait would have been ten years instead of a few months. But Hadayet never actually was convicted of an immigration violation because his case was on appeal when his wife won the diversity lottery, said Bergeron. He confirmed that Hadayet's immigration history was entirely legal and aboveboard as far as the INS knew.

According to the Social Security Administration, however, Hadayet received a Social Security number in 1981-11 years before the INS says they have any record of his entering the United States. "He did get his first Social Security number in 1981," said Social Security Administration spokesman Lowell Kepke. "That number was issued in Los Angeles, and it was a Social Security number that did not allow him to work here." Kepke explained that this number was issued to Hadayet as a non-citizen immigrant who did not have work privileges in the U.S.

This strongly implies that Hadayet was able to enter the United States and live here-perhaps for more than a decade-without drawing the notice of immigration authorities. "We have no record of his entry prior to 1992," confirmed Bergeron.

For its part the FBI issued a statement saying: "Hadayet came to the United States in 1992 and had obtained a green card. He had been residing in Irvine, Calif."

The State Department's Diversity Immigrant Visa Program encourages immigration from countries where al Qaeda is known to have substantial operations, such as Egypt. It also encourages immigration from all seven countries on the State Department's list of state sponsors of international terrorism-Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Cuba, North Korea and Sudan. (See HUMAN EvENTs, Oct. 1, 2001, page 7.)

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Jul 15, 2002
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved