Speech #1050162264

Nizar and Hassan Sweilem were included in their mothers application since they were her minor children. Since 1984. the Sweilem brothers have been pursuing the right to live legally in the United States as permanent residents. In 1985. the INS denied the Sweilems request for asylum and initiated deportation proceedings against the family. Leila. Nizar and Hassan renewed their application for asylum in their hearing before an Immigration Judge. but those requests were denied. The Sweilems appealed that decision. but before any decision was issued. the Attorney General designated nationals of Lebanon eligible for Temporary Protected Status on account of the extreme level of violence created by the Lebanese civil war. TPS for citizens of Lebanon continued until March of 1993. In August of 1993. Hassan and Nizar asked that their asylum appeal be reinstated and that their case be remanded to allow them to apply for suspension of deportation. In November of 1994. Hassan and Nizar applied for suspension of deportation. While their application was pending. Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act in September of 1996. This law retroactively made Nizar and Hassan ineligible for suspension of deportation and left them with no alternate remedy. The 1996 Act eliminated suspension of deportation and established a new form of relief entitled cancellation of removal that required an applicant to accrue ten years of continuous residence as of the date of the initial notice charging the applicant with being removable. Despite the fact that at that time the Sweilem brothers had twelve years of continuous residence in the U.S.. the time accrued after the denial of their mothers initial asylum request does not count. Last year. this Congress recognized that these new provisions could result in grave injustices to certain groups of people. so in November of 1997. the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act granted relief to certain citizens of former Soviet block countries and several Central American countries. That law allowed several hundred thousand Central Americans and former Soviet Union or Warsaw Pact countries. who came to the U.S. during the civil strife of the 1980s to adjust to permanent resident status under more lenient hardship rules that existed prior to the 1996 change. The U.S. had allowed Central Americans to reside and work here for over a decade. during which time many of them established families. careers and community ties. If Nizar and Hassan Sweilem were citizens of Nicaragua. El Salvador Guatemala or any of the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe. they could continue to pursue their applications for suspension of deportation. The fact that they are citizens of Lebanon makes them ineligible for relief. Nizar and Hassan Sweilem have lived in the United States for almost 15 years. since they were 12 and 14. respectively.