Obama Administration Seeks to Deport Palestinian Who Spied on Hamas for Israel

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef. However, rather than follow his father's footsteps into Islamist terror, he provided information to Israeli intelligence that prevented terror attacks. He came to the United States in 2007, converted to Christianity, and applied for political asylum. That was understandable, because as a self-confessed former spy for Israel, he is no doubt on the death list of the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and sundry other Islamist terror organizations. He has written a best selling memoir, "Son of Hamas."

Incredibly, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security currently is trying its hardest to deport Mosab Hassan Yousef to the areas of the West Bank (aka Yehuda and Shomron [Judea and Samaria]) under Palestinian control, as an alleged terror threat. More incredibly, as evidence of his support for terror, Homeland Security attorney Kerri Calcador bizarrely cites passages from "Son of Hamas," describing work that he did for Hamas while spying on behalf of Israel, as evidence of his aid to terrorists. "At a bare minimum, evidence of the respondent's transport of Hamas members to safe houses . . . indicates that the respondent provided material support to a [Tier I] terrorist organization," the U.S. lawyer wrote.

As the Wall Street Journal column notes:

But unless Ms. Calcador knows more than she's saying, this is bizarre. As a spy for Israel, Mr. Yousef had to make his colleagues believe he was a loyal member of Hamas. He used that trust to gain information that he provided to Israeli intelligence, which used it to prevent terror attacks and save lives. One of Mr. Yousef's handlers at Shin Bet confirmed his book's account to the Israeli daily Haaretz, and his father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, has disowned him from the Israeli prison he has occupied since 2005.

I am sorry folks, but I cannot believe that our immigration and homeland security laws are applied so literally that they compel deportation of a man who risked his life to defy Hamas as a terror threat. I cannot believe that the government is mechanically compelled to cite as evidence for his assistance to a terror organization his infiltration into Hamas in order to spy for Israel and prevent terror attacks. Someone has made a deliberate policy decision to deport Mr. Yousef to a location where he will likely become an immediate assasination target, or will be arrested, tried and executed by the Palestinian Authority as a spy for Israel. There is another agenda operating here that has little or nothing to do with homeland security. Perhaps Mr. Yousef's real "crime" was not assisting Hamas, but rather assisting Israel.

If Homeland Security persists, I trust that Israel will offer Mr. Yousef asylum. In the meantime, it is appropriate to repeat the challenge made this week on the floor of the House of Representatives by U.S. Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who was speaking about Israel and Hamas in a somewhat different context: "Mr. President, whose side are you on?"