Liberian deported in first ICE child soldier recruitment case

A federal immigration judge in New York ordered a Liberian man deported back to his home country under Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s first invocation of child soldier recruitment and use charges.

The former leader of the Liberian Peace Council (LPC), George Saigbe Boley, 62, was deported for his role in human rights abuses committed during the Liberian civil war in the 1990's, said ICE in a Feb. 6 statement. The case was the first time in the agency’s history that an individual has been charged under the Immigration and Nationality Act's recruitment and use of child soldiers charges.

Boley, of Hilton, NY, leader the LPC during the Liberian civil war, was found by an immigration judge to be removable from the United States, said ICE. Boley's case represents ICE’s first removal order obtained under the authorities of the Child Soldiers Accountability Act of 2008, which added the recruitment and use of child soldiers as grounds to bar entry to, and deportation from the U.S. The immigration judge also found Boley inadmissible to the U.S. based upon the government's charge of commission of extrajudicial killings in Liberia in the 1990s and that he had abandoned his lawful permanent resident status, said ICE.

"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, said ICE. 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, said the agency. 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, it said.

The investigation was conducted by ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) 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 U.S., said the agency.