UTA grad student deported for terrorist accusations
ARLINGTON (U-WIRE) — Twenty days after an immigration judge’s ruling, a Jordanian graduate student accused of considering a terrorist attack was deported Thursday.

An official at the Homeland Security department, who asked that she not be identified by name or agency, confirmed Tuesday that Tahir Ibrihim Aletewi, 30, was returned to his native Jordan. She said she did not know if he was in custody there.

“The circumstances are different in every case,” the source said. “If he was wanted in Jordan for any reason, it is possible he is being held by them. The country of origin is always notified of deportations. It's part of the process we follow.”

The computer science engineering student was detained Jan. 31 by FBI and then-INS agents operating as part of a joint terrorism task force. He was ordered deported a week later after a hearing in which he reportedly told Dallas-based immigration Judge D. Anthony Rogers that he had considered becoming a suicide bomber.

Interviewed by telephone Tuesday, a Falls Church, Va.-based spokeswoman for the court disputed press reports that Aletewi was to be deported within five days of the Feb. 7 ruling.

— Brad Rollins, The Shorthorn at the University of Texas at Arlington