(Democrat and Chronicle) A federal courtroom in Rochester next week will be the battleground for a constitutional tug-of-war as authorities try to keep jailed a man once imprisoned for terrorism crimes and who is now facing deportation.
The hearing will test the powers of a rarely used Patriot Act regulation crafted in the aftermath of 9/11. Adham Amin Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian man, has served his prison term and is now detained at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia.
Hassoun, 58, is awaiting deportation, but there is a problem: So far, no country will have him.
Hassoun and his lawyers, a group which includes attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, contend that he cannot be held by immigration officials indefinitely, and he must be released.
