The US Supreme Court has declined to hear the asylum application of a former INLA member fighting his deportation to Northern Ireland.
Lawyers for Belfast man Malachy McAllister said his legal challenge has now been exhausted and they must find a political solution to stop the deportation of McAllister and his two children, Nicola and Seán. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case after the Third Circuit of the US Court of Appeals refused the McAllisters' asylum application, which was based on a claim that they could face loyalist attack in Northern Ireland.
One member of the appeal court, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, a sister of property mogul, Donald Trump, had strongly backed the McAllisters' fight to stay in the US but said she could not find a legal remedy to their cause. The other two judges had been strongly opposed to allowing the McAllisters to stay.
With the Supreme Court announcement this week, the family's Belfast-born lawyer, Eamonn Dornan, said the family's hopes now lay with special legislation being introduced into Congress by New Jersey congressman Steve Rothman.
Mr Dornan said the new Democratic majority in Congress may help the family's cause. McAllister, who has a previous conviction for conspiring to murder an RUC officer, fled Belfast with his family 18 years ago after loyalists sprayed his house with gunfire.
The case has been a high-profile one for Irish Americans and some New York and New Jersey members of Congress.