Mr. Speaker. I rise to join my colleagues In showing congressional support for Francis Gildernew. who is now confronting unjust deportation hearings. I join my colleagues In this action with the understanding that our words will be presented in court as part of the defense of Mr. Gildernew. This is not the first time my colleagues and I have had to come to the floor to protest the unwise intervention of foreign policy considerations in our judicial system. We took to the floor to protest the treatment of Sean Mackin. who was facing deportation to certain death. In the end. an immigration judge finally ruled in his favor and he and his family are now continuing their lives in New York. We also repeatedly gave our support to Joe Doherty. who now languishes in a British jail alter several United States court rulings in his favor were overturned by our own Justice Department. Now. we take to the floor on behalf of another individual. whose only crime seems to have been his work for peace and justice in Ireland. Francis Gildernew came to our country in 1984. when he married an American citizen and opened a business in New York. His life was abruptly disrupted on April 19. 1992. when armed FBI and INS agents stormed his house and arrested him. They charged that he had lied on his green card application. that he had claimed never to have been convicted of a crime in his home country. Francis Gildernew was convicted of a crime in Ireland. but that conviction stemmed from a confession extracted after a week of brutal torture. That confession was in fact a prepared text that he was forced to sign by the same police force that has admitted to extracting false confessions during another case. the case of the Birmingham Six.
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