Immigration Law

HOW DO WE GET RID OF THESE GUYS?

By Greg Siskind

Not everyone deserves a shot at remaining in the US. PARTICULARLY Nazis. Some people might be surprised that we are still trying to deport World War II Nazi war criminals who have had decades of due process. I gave a lecture almost a decade ago about John Demjanjuk, a concentration camp guard who was in the process of being deported. Just a few weeks ago, the US Supreme Court finally slammed the door on his attempts to remain in the US.

The process is unbelievably long. First, the person needs to de-naturalized. The people in question all lied about their past in order to enter the US. Eventually they became US citizens and this is when the Department of Justice must prove that the person fraudulently entered the US because they really did engage in genocide and lied about it when entering the country.

Once the person is stripped of citizenship, they are then put in deportation proceedings. This can take additional years.

Finally, the US has to find a country willing to accept the person. And in the last few years, Germany and other countries that engaged in atrocities have refused to accept them.

The an op-ed piece by Teicholz in the Hartford Courant reports on five individuals awaiting deportation and just this week, the Board of Immigration Appeals added another name to this list.

Congress is stepping in to sanction Germany and other countries that refuse to take back these war criminals. The sanction of choice - removing the country from the Visa Waiver program. Gordon Smith has introduced the World War II War Crimes Accountability Act of 2008 in the Senate. Similar legislation is in the works in the House, according to my sources.

The threat of sanctions may be working. Just yesterday, Germany announced it is interested in putting Demjanjuk on trial.

It's time to close this chapter. Hopefully, Germany is serious and will indeed honor its promise to provide justice to the millions of victims and their surviving relatives.

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on June 21, 2008 (boomark / email).