Deportation

A visiting professor at Amherst College has charged that political factors are behind a deportation order he received from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Dennis V. Brutus, a Black anti-apartheid activist and exiled South African poet, will go to court Tuesday to seek a suspension of the order.

Brutus, who is a tenured professor at Northwestern, said there were "political implications" to the deportation order, adding that his role in organizing demonstrations against South African sports teams playing in the United States was probably a factor in the deportation effort. Brutus has also been active in efforts to convince U.S. colleges to divest their stockholdings in companies that conduct business in South Africa.

An INS spokesman said politics had not played a part in the deportation proceedings, adding that Brutus's case was routine because his temporary visa expired last year. By taking a permanent job in the United States under a temporary visa, Brutus jeopardized his application for permanent residency, Robert Prosek, acting district director for the INS in Chicago, said yesterday.

Even though the INS has sent several notices since January telling Brutus that he must leave the country, the department will approve Brutus's application if he applies from outside the United States, Prosek said. However the final decision to grant permanent residency will have to be made by the U.S. State Department, as is the procedure with all such requests, he added.

Brutus was born in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, but spent most of his life in South Africa. He fears his life will be in danger if he returns to Zimbabwe because he was a vocal critic of white-minority rule there and in South Africa, he said, adding that he left Zimbabwe in 1966 on the threat of imprisonment.