From Ingrid Rimlan <irimland@mail.bellsouth.net>
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/ernstzundeldeportation12may03.shtml
May 12, 2003
News Release
SEVIERVILLE, TN -- The United States acted illegally to deport Ernst Zundel
from his home in Tennessee, and his case represents an abuse of executive
power and will be fully pursued in the federal courts, says his U.S. legal
team.
Zundel is a widely-known controversial figure who was prosecuted in Canada
for "spreading false news" and whose conviction was ultimately
overturned by that country's Supreme Court in 1992. He is now back in Canada,
in prison and facing imminent deportation to Germany as a result of his
deportation from the United States in February.
Canadian government officials on May 1 certified that he poses a threat
to Canada's national security, but his lead attorney in the United States,
Boyd W. Venable III, says that Zundel should have never been taken to Canada
to begin with.
"Zundel had been living with his wife peaceably in Tennessee for almost
three years, awaiting immigration processing," says Venable. "He
posed a threat to no one. An FBI agent had even told him his speech was
protected in the U.S."
Venable says that in order to try to justify Zundel's deportation the U.S.
Immigration and Naturalization Service had to have either "lost"
or destroyed or disregarded two separate letters that Zundel's immigration
attorney wrote to INS, while Zundel was waiting for an interview on the
petition filed for him by his wife, United States citizen Ingrid Rimland
Zundel. One of these letters was sent U.S. "certified mail" and
its receipt by INS was acknowledged in writing. INS says it has no record
of the letters and that Zundel "abandoned" his immigration case
by not appearing for an interview, but Venable says Zundel's immigration
attorney took routine measures to have the interview rescheduled.
"It is hard to see this as another case of INS bungling," says
Venable. Venable says that immigration law experts who he has consulted
with say that it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Zundel was targeted
for his political views--"they are telling me essentially that his
immigration arrest was contrived and that the case sets off alarm bells
of national dimensions, particularly in view of other acts being taken in
the name of national security."
While the Canadian media have reported that Zundel was removed from the
U.S. because he "missed a hearing" or that his "visa"
had expired or that he overstayed his permitted stay, none of those accounts
are correct, says Venable. Until the day of his arrest Zundel was recognized
as lawfully present in the U.S. since he was waiting for a duly-rescheduled
interview for permanent residence, based on his marriage.
Moreover, Zundel never needed a visa to enter the U.S. or remain there,
says Venable, since he had been originally admitted to the U.S. on a "visa
waiver" program applicable to German citizens, and then in May 2000
had been waved through a border crossing at Niagara Falls like an ordinary
visa-exempt Canadian, and had never left because of his marriage.
That is part of the story detailed in an appellate brief filed by Venable
with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in mid-April. No deadline has been
sent for the response of the United States government. Venable says he received
direct and indirect assistance in the federal appeal from experienced immigration
litigators.
Venable says he remains shocked at what happened in February to Zundel,
who lived nearby. "With no warning whatsoever, five INS agents and
local authorities appeared at Zundel's home, arrested him without a warrant,
did not allow him to go back into the house, did not allow him to call a
lawyer, and he was deported to Canada less than two weeks later. I didn't
believe this was possible in the United States and I still can't believe
it."
Although he filed an emergency request for a Writ of Habeas Corpus in federal
court in Knoxville, Venable says the court dismissed the case with a terse
explanation that there were no grounds for reviewing the INS action. Venable
says that decision is clearly incorrect, especially since there was nothing
in the federal court's file to show the judge why Zundel was being deported
without a hearing. The appeal to the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati is based
on that erroneous decision, he says.
Zundel's wife Ingrid (Rimland) as a child experienced firsthand the battlegrounds
of World War II in Russia and later Germany. Her father was taken away by
the Russian secret police and she never saw him again. She fled with her
family and others in her Mennonite community to Germany and later to South
America.
"Am I going to lose my husband for life--because he holds politically
incorrect opinions? Because he speaks and writes as his conscience dictates?"
she asks.
Rimland says her husband is a pacifist and a gentle man who is trying to
address the hate that has been directed at Germans since World War II. "Can
a brutal agency simply snatch my husband away from me without an explanation?
Is this still America? Is the U.S. Constitution still in force? Is the Bill
of Rights still in operation--or is it merely a platitude? Am I back in
a dictatorship the likes of which I had tried to outrun as a child?"
Venable says that he and his legal team are trying to interest the American
Civil Liberties Union and other academics and civil libertarians in the
case. To date no one has stepped forward to assist--perhaps because Zundel
is such a reviled figure, he says. Several national Jewish groups have labeled
Zundel as a "Holocaust denier" for his views on events of World
War II, which include the view that practically all of the Jews who died
in concentration camps died from illness and, toward the end of the war,
from starvation--not from gassing. Crematoria were used to dispose of diseased
corpses for public health reasons, according to Zundel.
Zundel has written that powerful Jewish groups have fostered the propaganda
of mass gassings and sought to repress contrary evidence in order to serve
their own post-war interests.
"In a free nation someone has to speak up for even the person who has
the most unpopular or politically incorrect views," states Venable.
"Zundel is not advocating violence. Regardless of whether you agree
or disagree with Zundel's views, he is supposed to have the right to express
himself without armed officers coming to his door to take him away. We hope
the Sixth Circuit will agree."
For further information and to update this story contact:
Boyd W. Venable III
Law Office of Boyd W. Venable, III
121 Commerce Street
Sevierville, TN 37864
(865) 908-3029
(865) 908-3042 (fax)
venablelaw@msn.com
Ingrid Rimland Zundel
3152 Parkway, Suite 13, PMB 109
(865) 774-7756
(865) 774-7758 (fax)
irimland@mail.bellsouth.net
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the opinion of the author and is provided for educational purposes only.
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