Jakiw Palij is a convicted Nazi war-criminal who helped train the force charged with murdering every Jew in Poland, guarded the Trawniki forced labor camp — where 6,000 prisoners were murdered in a single day — and was present at the “liquidation” of the Warsaw Ghetto. He’s lived in the USA since 1949, when he entered the country and lied about his Nazi past.
That lie was the basis of a 2004 immigration proceeding that resulted in his being stripped of US citizenship; the same judge issued a deportation order for Palij.
But at age 94, Palij remains in the USA, living in his home in Jackson Heights, Queens. ICE has failed to deport him because, they say, Ukraine, Poland and Germany have all refused to take him in, and it’s likely he will live out the rest of his days in the USA.
In the first three months of 2018, ICE deported 56,710 people, 46% of whom had not been convicted of any crime.
ICE declined to comment and said to speak to the State Department, which also declined to comment. A U.S. government source who is close to the situation and requested anonymity to speak freely said of Palij, “ICE cannot remove him unless he has travel documents and Germany would have to provide those to the U.S. government to remove him and that has not happened. This has been over a decade now since he was ordered removed, but we haven’t gotten Germany to comply. Here is someone who wore a German uniform and represented Germany in WWII, and the German government hasn’t made any effort to ensure he is back there.”However, said Stephen Paskey, “The real issue is whether it’s a priority for anyone at the State Department, and generally I don’t think it has been. I don’t know for certain what they’ve done, but I think the results speak for themselves.”
ICE Won’t Deport the Last Nazi War Criminal in America [Justin Rohrlich/The Daily Beast]
(via JWZ)