Dallas / Fort Worth Local News

DALLAS (AP) ― Immigration authorities are asking a court to let them sedate an Albanian restaurant owner before putting him on an airplane for deportation because they believe he will again fight attempts to remove him.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked a federal judge to give them permission to medicate Rrustem Neza, a 32-year-old asylum seeker agents couldn't deport in August because he was terrified and did not calm down.

A physician from the U.S. Public Health Service would administer the sedative and a medical worker would accompany Neza during the flight.

"Unless this Court enjoins Neza from any further unlawful resistance to his removal and authorizes ICE, through PHS, to use medical means ... it will be impossible to execute the final order of removal," the government said in court documents filed Oct. 1.

Although immigration authorities have had deportees medicated before, it's rarely done, said ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok.

"We only ask for this option when the alien in question may present a danger to himself or to others," he said Monday.

Dallas attorney John Wheat Gibson, who represents Neza, said Monday he plans to fight the government's request.

Neza fled his home country after publicly identifying the men accused of gunning down a Democratic leader, leaving his life in jeopardy if he returns to Albania, Gibson said.

"Mr. Neza will get off the airplane in Albania too drugged to run from the killers who will be waiting," Gibson wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

ICE agents tried to deport Neza in August but he physically resisted and shouted while at the terminal at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

ICE alleges Neza grabbed a cell phone from the deportation officer's hand after being told he could no longer use it to call his attorney and family. Neza then began shouting "I am not a terrorist" and asked an airline ticket agent for help while saying he was being illegally deported. He later began shouting "I am not a criminal!" when the deportation officer grabbed him by the arm, according to court documents.

Eventually, ICE and police officers handcuffed Neza and took him to a cell but weren't able to put him aboard a commercial flight to Albania because he would not calm down.

In the meantime, Neza is being detained at the Rolling Plains facility in Haskell, about 210 miles west of Dallas. His wife, Nurie Neza, and 10-year-old son are not detained but also face deportation.

Neza's two brothers were granted asylum in the U.S. but his bid for asylum was denied and subsequent appeals have been turned down.

His attorney has asked the Board of Immigration Appeals to stop the deportation and petitioned to have the case reopened, based on Neza's fear that he will be killed after arriving in Albania.

Neza fled after telling a crowd in the Albanian city of Tropoje the names of the men who allegedly were seen killing Azem Hajdari, who organized a student movement against the Communist Party. Police pursued him, his brothers and their cousins while they tried to flee. His cousins were fatally shot while on the run.

Neza eventually made it to the U.S., settling with his family in the East Texas town of Lufkin. Neza's 6-year-old son was born in the U.S. and he and his brother Xhemal Neza own several restaurants in East Texas.

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