A convicted terrorist and boss of the Irish Republican Military in North America could lastly be getting booted from america.
Gabriel Megahey, 82, lived in New York for many years however a June 20 letter from the US Division of Homeland Safety warned his “parole” was being terminated, practically 30 years after he and different IRA members got dispensation to remain within the nation.
“Do not attempt to unlawfully remain in the United States — the federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately,” reads the one-page letter, which Megahey shared with the Irish Echo.
The Belfast native was convicted in 1983 in Brooklyn Federal Courtroom for conspiring to purchase missiles to shoot down British helicopters amid the violent clashes in Northern Eire often known as “The Troubles.”
On the time, federal authorities thought-about Megahey “the officer commanding (OC) of America and Canada” for the IRA, he informed PBS’s Frontline.
The married father of six served 5 years in federal jail for conspiracy and arms shipments.
Megahey, identified by the nickname “Skinny Legs,” was convicted with three others, with then U.S. Lawyer John Dearie describing him on the time as “the most culpable of these defendants,” and the group as an entire as “a network of men who sought to use this country as a base of terrorist activities,” in keeping with studies.
“No one wants peace more than us,” Megahey, who first settled in Jackson Heights, Queens in 1975, insisted on the sentencing listening to.
He was launched from jail in 1988 — however by no means deported.
Megahey and 4 different IRA members had been then allowed to stay within the nation as a part of the Good Friday Settlement, the historic April 1998 accords which ended a long time of violence in Eire between those that wished to stay a part of the UK and people who didn’t.
Now the grandfather of 14 and great-grandfather of 5, who information present moved to Delaware in 2019, is reeling after DHS warned he can be fined and criminally prosecuted if he stays in america.
“DHS is terminating your parole,” in keeping with the one-page letter, which Megahey shared with the Irish Echo. “Do not attempt to unlawfully remain in the United States — the federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately.”
Megahey, who depends on Social Safety, Medicare, and Medicaid to pay for costly drugs essential to deal with a coronary heart ailment, additionally faces the lack of his advantages.
“It would cost me $4,000 to $5,000 a month to pay for it on my own,” he informed Straus Information. “I can’t afford that. I’ll have to go home.”
DHS and Megahey declined remark.
