After decades of quietly living in the United States, the 82-year-old convicted IRA arms smuggler Gabriel Megahey now faces deportation as the Trump administration’s tough new immigration enforcement sweeps away the remnants of Biden-era leniency.
At a Glance
- Department of Homeland Security moves to deport Gabriel Megahey, convicted IRA arms smuggler, after terminating his parole
- Trump administration’s new immigration priorities accelerate removal of long-time residents with criminal records
- Megahey’s case spotlights the far-reaching consequences of Project 2025 and the end of discretionary relief
- Debate reignites over US handling of historical political violence and the limits of compassion versus rule of law
DHS Targets IRA Convict as Trump’s Deportation Drive Accelerates
Gabriel Megahey, once the Provisional IRA’s top man in America and convicted in 1983 for conspiring to purchase missiles for use against British helicopters, is at the center of a new deportation battle. The Department of Homeland Security, capitalizing on President Trump’s expanded expedited removal powers, has ended Megahey’s decades-long parole, launching proceedings to expel him from the United States. In a nation where law-abiding Americans watch their tax dollars subsidize border-jumping freeloaders, there’s a wicked irony: it took 40 years and a new administration to finally enforce a standing deportation order on a convicted terrorist, while millions of illegals enjoy sanctuary and handouts courtesy of the radical left’s failed priorities.
Feds move to deport 82-year-old convicted IRA terrorist after decades in the United States https://t.co/grc3FuuFZN pic.twitter.com/dklwHGQU4D
— New York Post (@nypost) July 26, 2025
For years, Megahey remained in legal limbo. Despite his conviction in a Brooklyn federal court for arms smuggling and a deportation order dating back to the Reagan years, previous administrations allowed him to remain in the country under parole. The Biden administration’s endless compassion for “undocumented immigrants”—no matter their backgrounds—meant even convicted terrorists could live out their twilight years on American soil. That era is over. The Trump White House’s Project 2025 blueprint calls for the aggressive removal of noncitizens with criminal histories, the rapid expansion of expedited removals nationwide, and zero tolerance for “sensitive location” loopholes. Megahey’s case is now Exhibit A in demonstrating that the rule of law, not the rule of woke, governs America again.
Project 2025: A New Era for Immigration Enforcement
Under Project 2025, the Trump administration has unleashed a tidal wave of enforcement measures that dismantle the complex web of “humanitarian” relief and bureaucratic delay woven by progressive policymakers. Parole programs, once used to suspend deportation for everyone from convicted terrorists to recent border crossers, have been rescinded. Expedited removal authority is now nationwide, not just within 100 miles of the border, and judicial review—once a favorite tool of activist lawyers—is being sidelined in favor of swift, decisive action.
The administration’s goal is clear: deport one million immigrants a year, triple the previous record. Local police are now empowered to enforce immigration law, and sanctuary jurisdictions have been put on notice—cooperate with federal law enforcement or lose funding and face penalties. The message to the American public is equally clear: decades of chaos and open borders are ending, replaced by a government that puts citizens and the rule of law first. Megahey’s impending removal highlights the new reality—no one, not even an octogenarian with a notorious past, is above the law when it comes to national security and immigration integrity.
Long Shadows of the Troubles and the Politics of Deportation
Megahey’s case is more than a footnote in the annals of The Troubles. The 1980s saw the US government, under heavy British pressure, crack down on IRA arms smuggling networks operating from New York to Boston. Megahey, with fellow NORAID associates, was caught orchestrating a plot to acquire surface-to-air missiles and rifles for the IRA’s fight against Britain. His conviction and subsequent deportation order were meant to send a message. Yet, for four decades, that message was buried beneath layers of administrative inertia and political “compassion.”
Now, with the Trump administration’s iron resolve, the case is a stark reminder of what happens when government finally prioritizes security and justice over appeasing every aggrieved special interest group. Some in the Irish-American community still see Megahey as a political prisoner, a relic of a bygone struggle. But for families of IRA victims, and for anyone who believes in the sanctity of US borders and laws, this is long-overdue justice. The drama unfolding around Megahey’s final days in America is a microcosm of the larger battle between common-sense governance and the radical left’s endless excuses for lawbreakers.
