First time ICE has used the recruitment and use of child soldiers charge
WASHINGTON — An immigration judge in
Batavia, N.Y., earlier today ordered removed from the United States the
former leader of the Liberian Peace Council (LPC) for his role in human
rights abuses committed during the Liberian civil war in the 1990s. This
is the first time in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
history that an individual has been charged under the Immigration and
Nationality Act’s recruitment and use of child soldiers ground of
inadmissibility.
George Saigbe Boley, 62, of Hilton,
N.Y., the leader of LPC during the Liberian civil war, was found by an
immigration judge to be removable from the United States. Boley’s case
represents the first removal order obtained by ICE under the authorities
of the Child Soldiers Accountability Act of 2008, which added the
recruitment and use of child soldiers as a ground of inadmissibility to
and deportability from the United States. The immigration judge also
found Boley inadmissible based upon the government’s charge of
commission of extrajudicial killings in Liberia in the 1990s and that
Boley had abandoned his lawful permanent resident status.
“This historic immigration judge’s
ruling is the culmination of extensive efforts by Homeland Security
Investigations special agents and ICE attorneys to bring George Boley to
justice for his crimes,” said ICE Director John Morton. “The United
States has always been a place of refuge and freedom from oppression for
millions. We must ensure that those who come here seeking freedom and
the rule of law do not have to fear that their persecutor may become
their neighbor.”
Various organizations have reported
that the LPC engaged in serious human rights abuses against the civilian
population. The 1995 United States Department of State report on Human
Rights Practices in Liberia documented credible reports that Boley
authorized the extrajudicial executions of seven of his soldiers on Nov.
14, 1995. According to witnesses who testified before Liberia’s Truth
and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1994, the LPC burned dozens of
captives and village inhabitants accused of witchcraft activities in a
Liberian village. Other TRC witnesses also testified that in 1995, the
LPC massacred 27 inhabitants in an attack on a village – ordering them
to lie down before they slit their throats with cutlasses and raping the
women before they killed them.
The investigation was conducted by
ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Buffalo. ICE’s Office of
the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) Chief Counsel’s Office in Buffalo,
N.Y., handled the administrative removal proceedings leading to the
immigration judge’s decision. The field office was supported by ICE’s
Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC), OPLA’s Human
Rights Law Section and HSI Paris.
The HRVWCC investigates human rights
violators, including those who have participated in war crimes and acts
of genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, and the recruitment and
use of child soldiers, who try to evade justice by seeking shelter in
the United States. These individuals may assume fraudulent identities to
enter the country, seeking to blend into communities inside the United
States. Members of the public who have information about foreign
nationals suspected of engaging in human rights abuses or war crimes are
urged to call the ICE tip line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE (1-866-347-2423) or
to complete the agency’s online tip form.
To learn more about the assistance available to victims in these cases,
the public should contact ICE’s confidential victim-witness toll-free
number at 1-866-872-4973.
HSI has more than 200 active
investigations and is pursuing over 1,900 leads and removal cases
involving suspects from approximately 95 different countries. These
cases are predominantly focused on Central and South America, Haiti, the
former Yugoslavia and Africa. They represent cases in various stages of
investigation, prosecution or removal proceedings.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading …
Posted in 
Add to Google