Malachy McAllister has lived in New Jersey since Christie Whitman was governor, back when Woodland Park was called West Paterson and before “The Sopranos” made its television debut.

He’s been here more than two decades – on borrowed time – but U.S. immigration officials have told him to leave the country by the end of April.

McAllister, a former member of the paramilitary Irish National Liberation Army, fled Northern Ireland after serving time in prison for the attempted murder of British police officers during the period of civil strife known as the "Troubles.”

He came to New Jersey in 1996 as an asylum-seeker after he said British loyalists sprayed his family home with machine-gun fire, but U.S. immigration officials designated him a terrorist. They’ve spent the intervening years trying to deport him.

Now McAllister’s allies, including members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, are making eleventh-hour pleas with President Donald Trump’s administration to delay his removal. Meanwhile, lawmakers from both parties have introduced legislation that would allow him to stay for good.

The lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez and Rep. Bill Pascrell, contend the Rutherford stone mason paid his debt to society long ago and has lived a quiet life, running two small businesses, ever since.

“Mr. McAllister has built roots in our state and has a close-knit family in our community,” Pascrell told NJ Advance Media through a spokesman. “We’ve been going through this for years and had some close calls, but this is the most urgent it’s been.”

McAllister did not respond to a message seeking comment. He told The Irish Voice earlier this week that years of battling deportation had left him “spent.”

“I am absolutely afraid," he told the Irish-American news agency. “It’s like I’ll have a red target on my back.”

Menendez’s office confirmed Thursday he had spoken with acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan about the case.

“Deporting Malachy, putting his life at risk and taking him away from his children would be a travesty,” the senator said through a spokesman. "It is my sincere hope that the Trump administration does the right thing.”

The Troubles were one of the most violent periods in modern European history, but the United States has never fully recognized the conflict between Irish Catholic separatists and British government forces as a civil war.

So when McAllister appealed the denial of his asylum claim, federal courts acknowledged his family faced danger if they were forced to return home, but would not allow him to stay because of his criminal history.

Over the years, he has gained the support of members of Congress, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a national fraternal group of Irish Catholics.

In a statement, the Hibernians said McAllister’s past “is an open book which he has never tried to conceal,” describing his role in the attacks on British police as the actions of “a young man during the darkest days” of the Troubles.

But immigration officials in the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations have all sought to send him packing.

According to an April 11 letter from lawmakers to Immigrations and Custom Enforcement officials, McAllister was told to buy “a plane ticket to depart the country” by April 30. But the lawmakers asked immigration officials to postpone his removal, citing a request from Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, for a six-month stay of deportation proceedings.

The letter notes that Pascrell introduced “private legislation” that would allow McAllister and his adult children, Nicola and Sean, to remain in the U.S. Private legislation is a term for bills that affect specific individuals rather than the public at large. Menendez introduced similar legislation in the Senate.

In a separate March letter, 28 members of Congress expressed support for McAllister, writing that “the offenses for which Mr. McAllister was convicted occurred 36 years ago. He has never been convicted of any offenses within the United States.”

They also noted a 2006 court ruling, in which a federal judge wrote that the court could not grant McAllister and his relatives asylum because federal law was unnecessarily vague about “terrorist activity” that could block someone from staying in the U.S. The judge urged the Department of Justice to use its discretion to “permit this deserving family to stay.”

That judge was Maryanne Trump-Barry, the president’s older sister.

The president himself has not weighed in on McAllister’s case, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not return a request for comment.

S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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