http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/special ... 621474.htm

Posted on Sun, Feb. 04, 2007

The taste of freedom
Palestinian mother, 4 children are released from detention center

By ANABELLE GARAY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN/DEBORAH CANNON VIA AP
Hanan Ibrahim holds her daughter Zahra, 3, after being released from a detention center in Taylor on Saturday. Zahra, a U.S. citizen, was the only one of the Ibrahim children who was not placed in the center.A Palestinian woman and four of her children were released Saturday from the Texas immigration detention center where they've been held for three months.

Immigration officers arrested Salaheddin Ibrahim, his wife, Hanan, and four of their children in November at their Richardson home more than two years after their petition for asylum was denied.

Hanan Ibrahim, 34, who is five months pregnant, has been incarcerated since then at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, near Austin. Four of her children, Hamzeh Ibrahim, 15; Rodaina, 14; Maryam, 8; and Faten, 5, were also detained at the center.

Meanwhile, her husband, 37, was being held at Rolling Plains Regional Jail in Haskell, near Abilene. Attorneys for the family expect him to be released soon as well.

Escalating violence in their homeland swayed a federal immigration panel Friday to reconsider the family's asylum request, nullifying the order for removal from the U.S.

"Clearly the public glare of how horrible it is for children being detained and the family being split up caused this," Theodore Cox, one of the family's attorneys, said of the decision.

On Saturday, a black limousine carried the Ibrahims' youngest child, 3-year-old Zahra, and her uncle, Ahmad Ibrahim, to pick up Hanan Ibrahim and the four children. Real estate developer Ralph Isenberg, who has become an advocate for the family, set up the limo trip.

"I can't imagine children in jail. Quite frankly, it's just not acceptable," said Isenberg, whose Chinese-born wife was held for a time at an immigration detention center. "What type of message do we send to the rest of the world community when we lock up kids and throw away the key?"

As they made the five-hour trip to the Dallas area, the siblings were sitting in the back of the limo sipping orange juice, chatting and deciding where to stop for lunch, Ahmad Ibrahim said by phone.

The family was considering how to celebrate their release, he said, while the laughter of children rang in the background.

Before Friday's order, attorneys for the Ibrahims said the family was willing to leave the U.S. but had nowhere to go. Travel documents issued to the family by the Jordanian government expired, and the country refused to accept them.

Other countries were unwilling to take them or issue them documents.