AP Features, May 3rd, 2007
A Palestinian man and three of his four adult children have been released from a Texas detention facility, where they claim they were mistreated while being held in an immigration case.
Radi Hazahza, 56, and the children were released Wednesday, attorney Joshua Bardavid said. The fourth child is expected to be released in the coming days.
The government released the family after determining that their deportation was not foreseeable, Bardavid said.
The Hazahzas have said they cooperated with the U.S. government's demands to leave the U.S. after being denied asylum, but that no country was willing to take them _ not Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian Authority or dozens of other governments.
The government contended the Hazahzas were a flight risk and unlikely to comply with deportation orders.
The Hazahzas have said they endured cavity searches and were denied prompt medical care, and that guards mocked them when they prayed. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have denied that the Hazahzas were mistreated.
The family's problems began after they arrived in Texas in 2001 with visas. They applied for asylum, citing their fear of persecution because of Hazahza's political opinions. He was called an Israeli collaborator after criticizing Palestinian militants for using civilians as human shields, family members said.
Their asylum petition was rejected in 2002, and an immigration judge ordered them returned to either Jordan or the Palestinian territories. The Hazahzas' appeal of that decision was dismissed in 2004, but in the meantime, their travel documents issued by Jordan expired.
In November, armed ICE agents raided their home in the middle of the night and detained them.
