Former Nazi Camp Guard to Have Deportation Hearing
The Associated Press reports that U.S. authorities are continuing a long legal battle to deport a former Nazi concentration camp guard. Anton Geiser, now 88, has been living in a small western Pennsylvania town for more than 50 years. Geiser came to the United States in 1956 and settled in the small town of Sharon, which about 75 miles north of Pittsburgh. He became a citizen in 1962, worked in a steel mill for decades and raised five children. Geiser’s family did not know about his Nazi service until 2004, when the Justice Department began legal proceedings. Geiser says he was forced to join the SS at the age of 17, in 1942, but that he never killed anyone. Geiser escorted prisoners to slave labor sites and was under orders to shoot any prisoners who attempted to escape. While both sides agree that Geiser guarded only the perimeter of the camps, previous court rulings have found that doing so is enough to make someone ineligible for U.S. citizenship.
A federal judge in Pittsburgh revoked Geiser’s citizenship in 2006 and another judge ordered him deported in 2010. Geiser is fighting that order. He lost a circuit court appeal in 2008, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his case in 2009. In 2010, an immigration judge ordered him deported to Austria, or any other country that will take him. Geiser’s lawyer will be appealing a deportation order before the Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Virginia. Kurt Schrimm, the head of the special prosecutors’ office in Germany that investigates Nazi war crimes, said they are not currently investigating Geiser’s case and the Austrian Justice Ministry said it has not corresponded with American authorities. The Austrian Embassy in Washington, D.C. did not immediately respond to a question about whether the country would accept Geiser.
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1566027.shtml?cat=500
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US, Mexico Complete Trial of Flying Deportees Home
The Associated Press reports that the U.S. and Mexican governments have completed a two-month program to fly deportees home into Mexico, and the U.S. is looking to the new administration of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on whether to continue the effort aimed at relieving overwhelmed Mexican border cities. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said 2,364 Mexican nationals flew on 18 flights during the trial period, all but three of them men. Nearly 2,000 had criminal convictions in the U.S.
http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/US-Mexico-complete-trial-of-flying-deportees-home-4094451.php
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Feds Probe Fatal Migrant Shooting by Border Agent
The Arizona Daily Star reports that a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed a man in the Baboquivari Mountains. The incident occurred when an agent encountered a group of people who had crossed the border illegally, agency spokesman Victor Brabble said. A struggle occurred during the incident, leading to the agent shooting one member of the group. Brabble did not give the nationality of the man who died. The FBI is investigating, as the incident was the third fatal shooting by a Border Patrol agent in the Tucson Sector since Oct. 2. That day, agent Nicolas Ivie was killed in what the FBI has determined was a case of friendly fire.
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Deportation: More Than 200,000 Parents Removed Who Say They Have a U.S. Citizen Child
The Huffington Post reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed more than 200,000 immigrants from the country who say they are parents of a child who is a U.S. citizen. The figures, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, put the problem of family separation into sharper focus as politicians on both sides of the aisle are calling for renewed attention to immigration reform. While an ICE spokesperson sent a statement to The Huffington Post saying most of the undocumented immigrants cited in the new data had criminal records, the “Wish for the Holidays” campaign has delivered around 10,000 letters to members of Congress and to President Barack Obama, detailing the negative effects of family separation and asking to stop the splitting of families through deportation.
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