Trump does what Obama failed to and deports the last known Nazi war criminal. The 95-year-old Jakiw Palij has been hiding in the United States for a very long time. The kick here is, orders have been in place to deport the man for more than a decade.
According to The Daily Wire, “President Trump commends his Administration’s comprehensive actions, especially ICE’s actions, in removing this war criminal from United States soil,” the Office of the Press Secretary said in a statement. “Despite a court ordering his deportation in 2004, past administrations were unsuccessful in removing Palij.”
“To protect the promise of freedom for Holocaust survivors and their families, President Trump prioritized the removal of Pali,” the statement continued. “Through extensive negotiations, President Trump and his team secured Palij’s deportation to Germany and advanced the United States’ collaborative efforts with a key European ally.”
The Washington Post Reported:
Jakiw Palij, 95, will likely be the last Nazi death-camp guard expelled from the United States. Tracked down by Justice Department sleuths and confronted in 1993, Palij admitted he was not a farmer during World War II, as he had said while lying his way to U.S. citizenship. But he denied participating in the murder of Polish Jews, even as he was stripped of his citizenship and was ordered deported in 2004.
Yes, 2004.
“He remained so long in New York because his homeland, now in Ukraine, wouldn’t take him. Nor would Germany, which has only recently shown much interest in prosecuting aging guards from the camps. New York politicians, including Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D), pressed the State Department to try harder, and activists staged regular protests outside Palij’s house. Yet the years rolled by.
Then along came Trump, who finally made a priority of enforcing the deportation order. In sending Ambassador Richard Grenell to Germany, the president instructed the envoy to turn up the heat on Berlin to issue the required travel documents.
“I’m glad this man is finally being sent back,” Schumer said. “He’s a war criminal.”
With luck, Germany will reconsider its stated intention to let the man die without standing trial…”