Suspected Nazi Guard to Be Deported

An immigration judge Wednesday ordered John Demjanjuk, a retired autoworker accused of being a Nazi concentration camp guard, deported to his native Ukraine.

Demjanjuk, 85, has been fighting to stay in the country since the 1970s. He was suspected for a time of being the notoriously brutal guard known as Ivan the Terrible and was almost executed in Israel.

Chief U.S. Immigration Judge Michael Creppy ruled that there was no evidence to substantiate Demjanjuk’s claim that he would be tortured if deported to his homeland. He said Demjanjuk should be deported to Germany or Poland if Ukraine did not accept him.

Demjanjuk can appeal the ruling to the Board of Immigration Appeals within 30 days.

He lost his U.S. citizenship after a judge ruled in 2002 that documents from World War II proved he was a Nazi guard at various death or forced labor camps.

His lawyer had argued at a hearing last month that sending Demjanjuk back to Ukraine would be like throwing him “into a shark tank.”

John Broadley, Demjanjuk’s lawyer, said Wednesday’s ruling was the judge’s final order in the case. It was required before a June ruling authorizing the government to deport Demjanjuk could be appealed.

Broadley said he had not read the entire ruling issued Wednesday, but that Demjanjuk would appeal Creppy’s earlier decision.

The United States first tried to deport Demjanjuk in 1977, accusing him of being Ivan the Terrible at the Treblinka concentration camp in Poland. Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel, convicted and sentenced to hang, but the Israeli Supreme Court found that someone else apparently was Ivan.

Demjanjuk returned to the United States and his U.S. citizenship was restored before being lifted again.

The current case is based on evidence uncovered by the Justice Department alleging Demjanjuk was a different Nazi guard. Demjanjuk has denied the allegations.