U.S. efforts to identify and deport human rights abusers.

• Author: Crook, John R.

In October, the United States deported to Argentina Ernesto Guillermo Barreiro, a former Argentine army officer accused of having been the chief interrogator at the La Perla torture center during Argentina's "dirty war." (1) Barreiro is one of several hundred alleged human rights abusers identified as living in the United States by U.S. agencies, notably the Human Rights Violators and Public Safety Unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2)

Persons arrested in the United States for possible human rights violations committed abroad have included twenty-six Bosnian Serbs who are thought to have served in units involved in the Srebrenica massacre. These December 2006 arrests were based on information provided by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. (3) In another case, a Bosnian Croat refugee who became a Canadian citizen has been ordered deported from the United States on account of his suspected involvement in killings of Muslim men in Bosnia in 1993. (4)

In a November 2007 hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, (5) a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official testified regarding ICE's actions directed against foreign human rights violators in the United States. Her testimony emphasized ICE's cooperation with foreign agencies, including international criminal tribunals. Excerpts follow:

ICE is a U.S. law enforcement agency that is at the forefront of investigating human rights violators involved with genocide, torture, persecution, and extrajudicial killings ... ICE utilizes both immigration and customs authorities to identify and locate these criminals and bring them to justice. ICE, along with our law enforcement partners and the private sector, are committed to ensuring that the United States is not a safe haven for those who have engaged in such atrocities.

ICE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATOR PROGRAM AND RESULTS

In 2003, ICE created the Human Rights Violators and Public Safety Unit and the Human Rights Law Division to investigate and litigate cases involving human rights violators who now reside in the United States. Contributing to the ICE human rights effort is our Victim/Witness Program, which includes over 300 victim/witness coordinators who are trained to address the needs of the victims of these horrific acts.

ICE has over 140 active investigations and is pursing over 800 leads and removal cases involving...