News Releases and Statements
News Releases and Statements
ERO Charlotte officers arrested an individual from Central America affiliated with an organization engaged in documented human rights atrocities against citizens in their country of origin. The individual will be removed from United States.
ERO Atlanta officers arrested an individual from Central America involved in military operation that specifically targeted women and children and an individual from Africa affiliated with a regime directly responsible for human rights atrocities against citizens in his country of origin. The two individuals had already received final orders of removal and will be removed from United States.
During the operation, ERO officers arrested six aliens at-large in the community. The six are known or suspected human rights violators who were issued final orders of removal to be removed from United States.
ERO Baltimore officers arrested a Central American man who was affiliated with an organization complicit in alleged kidnappings, inflicted prisoner injuries, and alleged murders in his home country, and a West African man connected to a regime directly responsible for human rights abuses of citizens in his home country. The two were issued final orders of removal to be removed from United States.
The ICE National Fugitive Operations Program in coordination with the ICE Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, and the ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, worked with ICE’s ERO Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York City, Newark, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco field offices to arrest these fugitives.
As part of Operation Limelight USA, HSI is conducting similar public outreach at international airports throughout the U.S. The U.S. program was designed by HSI’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, basing it off the United Kingdom’s Operation Limelight which is conducted by the Metropolitan Police Service and Border Authority.
Operation Limelight USA is a program designed by HSI’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Unit to bring awareness to FGM and deter its practice through the education of the public about the relevant risks
Mergia Negussie Habteyes, 58, previously pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful procurement of naturalization. Negussie was sentenced by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia.
The court’s order was based on its finding that Sammy Rasema Yetisen aka Rasema Handanovic aka Zolja, a native of the former Yugoslavia, lacked the good moral character required to naturalize because during the 1990s Balkans Conflicts she had executed six unarmed civilians and prisoners of war because of their religion and ethnicity.
Mergia Negussie Habteyes, 58, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully procuring naturalization contrary to law before U.S. District Judge T. S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia. A sentencing hearing before Judge Ellis is scheduled for May 17, 2019.
Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a federal crime, and any involvement in committing this crime is a serious human rights violation which may result in imprisonment and potential removal from the United States. Individuals suspected of FGM/C, including sending girls overseas to be cut, may be investigated by the HRVWCC and prosecuted accordingly.
Nedjo Milosevic, 53, a native of the former Yugoslavia, who, according to the Department of Justice’s complaint, was a member of one of the military units responsible for the Srebrenica massacre – the largest mass atrocity in Europe since the Holocaust.
Palij, 95, concealed his Nazi service by telling U.S. immigration officials that he had spent the war years working until 1944 on his father’s farm in his hometown, which was previously a part of Poland and is now in Ukraine, and then in a German factory.
For the past 15 years, the center and its partners have worked collaboratively to support ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) efforts to bring numerous individuals to justice for human rights-related violations, such as genocide, torture, ethnic cleansing and various other forms of persecution. Through its work over the years, the center and its dedicated personnel have ensured that the United States does not become a safe haven for human rights abusers.