Deported from the U.S. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Irish anti-war activist Damien Moran, acquitted in Dublin Circuit court 18 months ago by jury trial of doing €2 million disarmament to a U.S. military plane at Shannon airport as a protest against the Iraq war, was deported from the U.S.A. on Sunday by Homeland Security agents at Chicago's O'Hare airport.
Moran had been invited to attend and speak at a conference against the U.S. Government's missile defence plans. The 27 year old County Offaly native is a former seminarian with the Holy Ghost Fathers in Kimmage and is currently living and teaching in Poland. Prior to leaving for Poland he worked with the De Paul Trust at a homeless shelter in Dublin's city centre.
Regarding the deportation Moran stated: “I was immediately detained and questioned by Homeland Security officers about our nonviolent and legal action at Shannon in February 2003. The information the border authorities claimed to have was that I was arrested for damaging a U.S. fighter jet at Shannon. I let them know that their database was out of date and that it should also read acquitted as an Irish jury had decided unanimously we had a lawful excuse to help save life and property in Iraq.”
He continued: “My mobile phone was seized and I was interrogated about the purpose of my trip and why I had damaged U.S. military property. I had been invited to speak at a university in Colorado Springs and at a conference in Omaha on U.S. militarism in Poland and Ireland. I also had tickets to visit my brother and his family in Virginia. Homeland Security 's unjustified refusal to allow me enter the U.S. and meet family, speak with U.S. citizens is just another example of how quasi-fascist the U.S. State apparatus has become.”
Furthermore, Moran claims that modern-day America is summed up by "his deportation from to the U.S. to advocate for social investment and military divestment on the same weekend as the U.S. officially celebrates the life of Martin Luther King Jr. I was barred from entering due to my act of dissent at Shannon 5 years ago against their disastrous militaristic policies at home and abroad. Evidently there is no room for dissenters' and foreign peace activists in America today ”
Furthermore the deportee claims “It is high time the omnipotent military -industrial complex in the U.S. is crushed by concerned citizens.When I informed them about our action and acquittal they were none too pleased. Unfortunately I've lost $350 dollars in flight expenses while the Global Network Against Weapons in Space organisation that invited me have been setback over $1,000. Albeit, it's not much money compared to the $2 trillion plus bill that U.S. taxpayers have paid to help their government wage the Iraq war.”
An Irish embassy representative promptly responded to Moran's notification of his deportation left from the Homeland Security offices at O'Hare airport. The representative told Moran that he would request Homeland Security update their database to include information that the Irish Catholic Worker group were acquitted anonimously in Dublin Circuit court in August 2006.
More on the conference that Moran was due to attend can be found at www.space4peace.org
As regards the Shannon Ploughshares action he was acquitted for with 4 colleagues more info. can be sourced at www.warontrial.com
Moran's current activities include resistance to the controversial U.S. missile defence plans for Poland. See www.m29.bzzz.net for more details.
Damien Moran can be contacted at:
Landline 0048228944746
Mobile 0048607340093
Comments
So quiet happy that my efforts to not take the deportation on the chin quietly have succeeded in creating a space for freedom of speech, movement, militarisation issues, etc. to be addressed on public airwaves and in print media.
How about Harper? I am led to beliee that Canadian database is getting more restricted too, especially for people from the US who have convictions for even minor driving offences and civil disobedience acts.
Open Letter to European Commission:
Attn: European Commission:
Dear Sir or Madame,
I am a theoretical Physicist holding German citizenship
and the passport of the Republic of Poland and world expert
in Condensed Matter Theory.
On June 2007 I was arrested by the United States Border Protection
Service while I was trying to get to Canada for Polish (European
Community passport found with me with expired USA visa stamp
when waiting for extension and adjustment of my US work visa.
I was tortured with one week of forcible travel to concentration
camp in Florence Arizona when I was kept for two mounts with
citizens of Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador in amounts about
200 per one cell and forced to public showers for stamp
in European passport.
I immigrated to United States from Poland for the purpose
of PhD studies in the University of Rochester holding student
visa forced by hunger in Republic of Poland before its
EU membership, was never
charged by the United States of any crime neither worked there
illigaly to laws of the United States,
I request the investigation against the United States government,
United States and the persons involved and ask the
European commission to stop the diplomatic
relations with the United States and all economic, banking and trade
ties until I am allowed to return to my home in Utah, car
detained at Canadian border and
property based
of natural law and common understanding of rights.
This mistreatment of European scientist by the government
of United States must face immediate response of the
European Union and must be explained.
Sincerely,
Matt Kalinski
Polish passport
Attached is a copy of a sketch to my article in Polish
or Polony Press which may
be interested to you:
On June 8 of this year I was driving with my own car
from Logan (near Salt Lake City)
in the States of Utah where I live (I was planning to
fill the immigrant petition to the INS
after the employment visa H1B, even if I would have to
leave the United States to legalize
the status - currently I was on B1 visa)
to Calgary in Canada in the province Alberta .
I got to the border crossing in Coutts/Sweet Grass in
the state of Montana , one
of very few where the Canadian and the American side
share the same office building.
First the immigration officers of the Canada forbid me
the entry on Canadian territory
because I had no valid Canadian visa (I was no
worrying neither about Canadian or
American visa because the Polish press reported (Nowy
Dziennik about 25th of March)
that Poland is a VWP country (Visa Waiver Program i.e
without visas like the rest of
the European Union)
since the February, so it is also not subjected to
issuing visas by Canada.
My tourist-business visa expired only 9 months before
this date (my detention).
The Canadian side returned me to the American side
when I was ordered
to wait 5 hours for the immigration officers superior
in confinement.
After a few hours the immigration officer arrested me
according to the article 236
(I remained silence)
of the Immigration and the Naturalization Act a I was
transported to the arrest in Shelby ,
and after tree days to the arrest in Boulder near
Helena in the State of Montana.
Next, with the combination of busses and federal
planes I was transported to the
immigration court in Florence in the State of Arizona
.
On June 25 the I have asked the immigration judge for
the voluntary departure
from the USA and on July 27 I was taken to the cargo
airport in Santa Ana in the
State of California , from where the KLM plane took me
to Amsterdam .
I do not understand the aggressiveness of United
States immigration services
against my person i.e. my arrest by the United States
during the DEPARTURE
(to underline) from the Unites States and while
driving my own car and during the legalization
of acts allowing illegal immigrants remaining in the
USA ,
Membership of the Republic of Poland in the European
Union and
lack of any other Nations of the European Union
in deportation arrests of the USA , also the fact of
having the house in the US
and the way I was traveling - I was cut from home and
my property in the
Unites States while traveling for one day to Canada
"out of my bed"
Iand I found myself after two months of arrest cut
from my home at Okecie airport.
I am educated as scientist (and of world fame), I have
never worked illegally in the United
States neither outside my profession.
I got to the USA on F-1 visa and later worked on H1B
visa and frequently
traveled on B1/B2 visa.
In 1991 I graduated Warsaw University of Technology
and next after sending about
25000 letters to all universities on the world and
passing the American maturita GRE and TOELF I managed
to get to study (PhD i.e. doctorate) in the University
of Rochester
in the State of New York.
In the USA I found myself really because of poverty
and by an accident, because
I was also accepted to the University of Lancaster in
the UK, but because of the
lack of the Republic of Poland membership in the
European Union I was requested
tuition fees which I was able to avoid in the USA .
.
Despite of the fact that I am traveling on Polish
Passport I have also the citizenship
of the Federal Republic of Germany and the second
place of residence in Germany.
In the arrest of the immigration court in Florence I
was the only one of two Polish
citizens for about 200-500 Latinos per day arrested
for crossing the Mexican
border so called "on black" which obviously increases
my misunderstanding
of the whole situation.
I will provide you with any other information like
copies of the deportation documents or
the satellite photos of objects where I was kept if
they are useful.
Matt Kalinski
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/let-matt-kalinski-stay.html
Mi deportación de EE.UU en Junio 2007
http://mkkes.blox.pl/html
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