Posted on 07/07/2003 8:53:51 PM PDT by SJackson
WASHINGTON, July 7 (JTA) — U.S. federal officials have arrested a Nazi guard who escaped deportation 16 years ago and was found hiding out in a secret compartment underneath the stairs of his former Michigan home. Johann Leprich, 77, was stripped of his citizenship in 1987 after a federal court judge found that he served as an armed SS Death´s Head guard at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria in 1943 and 1944.
But Leprich´s attorney said he had fled the United States for Canada before he could be officially deported.
After an exhaustive search, agents from the Department of Homeland Security´s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement found Leprich on July 1.
"We caught him on a visit," said Eli Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department´s Office of Special Investigations.
Rosenbaum said federal officials had received numerous reports of Leprich´s visits to the United States over the years, including one trip to Michigan to renew his driver´s license.
Investigators believe that Leprich spent most of the time after his citizenship was revoked in Canada, and it was easy for him to cross the border back into the United States, even without a passport.
Neighbors described Leprich, who apparently spent considerable time in the United States, as a "good man," who gave tomatoes from his garden to people, according to the Associated Press.
Rosenbaum said he hopes Leprich will receive an abbreviated deportation trial because of his previous conviction, and that Canada will refuse him entry.
Investigators were aided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Rosenbaum said.
"This arrest makes clear that those who participated in the atrocities of the Holocaust will not escape the determined reach of U.S. law enforcement, regardless of how much time has passed," Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a news release.
"Nazi collaborators will not find safe haven in the United States."
Leprich, who was featured on television´s "America´s Most Wanted" in 1997, immigrated to the United States in 1952, and became a naturalized citizen six years later. During his time at Mauthausen, inmates were used as slave laborers in a quarry located at the camp, and inmates were starved, beaten, tortured and killed by numerous methods, the court that prosecuted him said.
The Office of Special Investigations and Department of Homeland Security claimed in court papers filed last week that Leprich should be deported because of his service at Mauthausen and because he failed to comply with a statute requiring aliens residing in the United States to report their address to federal authorities.
Since 1979, 71 Nazi persecutors have lost their U.S. citizenship and 57 have been removed from the country.
Oh come now. It's right out of the anti-semite playbook. The Holocaust is brought up, and then on it's heels, Commies, read Jews, cause ya' know the Jews kinda brought the Holocaust on themselves, what with the fact they were a bunch of Commies, etc. You get the point.
The holier-than-thou attitude that so many FReepers seem to show sticks in my craw. None of us experienced what those poor bast*rds went through. Children telling on their parents, wives on husbands, families of mixed marriages being torn apart.
Then we have FReepers (I sure hope the "S" in SJackson does not stand for someone as noble as Stonewall)come along and try to equate the standards of today with the situation of yesterday. Makes me want to go puke. Leave the guy alone - let him live out the last few years of his life in relative peace. They need to go spend their time and energy trying to root out some real terrorists. Oh, but I forgot real terrorists have real guns and other dangerous things and someone might get hurt, they feel safe picking on a 77 year old man.
Actually, it’s the standards of today and the far left perspective that’s the issue. I dropped out of the thread when the Jewish conspiracy cracks and invectives as to my background came up, but you weren’t here, so for your benefit I’ll repeat myself. I’m assuming you’re commenting on the facts of Leprich’s situation, rather that any wish for favoritism over his background.
We have immigration laws in this country, poorly enforced, but I’m not only in favor of enforcing them, but strengthening them.
I’m sure Leprich was nice to his wife, kids, dog et all when he entered, but he was barred from entry, so he entered illegally in 1952. I understand that other posters feel the prohibition against concentration camp guards entering the US is an abuse, it’s irrelevant. You need to change the law. It’s illegal.
On entry, he lied. He could have gone to Sweden, Canada, or a number of other countries, he came here and lied, as he did in 1958.
Nice guy, I don’t know. Millions of illegals here as we speak, most of them looking for a better life. You’re a liberal, you’d say, let them stay. I feel bad for their plight, but I’d deport them.
He was found out and his citizenship was revoked in 1987. Interestingly, rather than appeal, or return to his homeland (don’t know where that is) where his actions might be investigated (what he did at the camps is not an issue in the US), he fled to Canada, as did many draft dodgers a couple decades before. I opposed amnesty, but clearly in the name of consistency many posters on this thread supported it
Interestingly, while we have little information about what he did in the camps, we do have this one piece, he fled prior to deportation. That’s like jumping bail, it’s called consciousness of guilt, which a reasonable person can use to infer guilt, in the US. Flight is a Marc Rich stunt, give this guy a pass, you must love the Rich pardon, he wasn’t even convicted and spent 16 years on the lam too. Of course, I opposed the pardon too
Anyway, he spent 16 years as a fugitive, illegally crossing the border to Canada and illegally renewing his drivers license. Lots of people do that, to Canada and Mexico. I oppose that, but the practice apparently has it’s supporters here.
He got caught, and now he’s going to be deported, expedited, without appeal (that’s the consciousness of guilt thing), for entering the country illegally in 52, and skipping out in 87.
I understand the liberal position that he’s a nice guy, and he didn’t mean it (though none of us know that), but despite the fact that there are thousands (probably hundreds of thousands) in similar positions, I’m quite comfortable having the law enforced.
If you want to comment on our areas of disagreement, or your ideas about amnesty for illegals, that’s fine, but I have no in discussing the fact that I’m Jewish or the “Hey guys, look we are on top now and we will never let you forget"!!!!” horseshit. If you endorse that crap, hey have a nice life. Sorry immigration law sticks in your craw. Write your Congressman and ask him to open the borders.
If you think we have a right to control our borders, you might reconsider your position, because this guy's illegal entries over 16 years is same thing several of the 9/11 terrorists did, over a shorter period, with the exception of the fact that he was a fugitive. Give him a pass, tell the guys on the border it doesn't matter, that's your choice, not mine.
You're going to be on everyone's $*it-list too. I'm glad that I'm not alone on this one.
Why are you shilling for a Nazi ?
Give him a fair trial and a fast hanging, just like John Mohammed.
Actually, as I noted some time ago in 212, he doesn't have to worry about hanging, or any other punishment. That's an issue (actually, non-issue) for the nation he's deported to. As an illegal all we do is deport him, even though that sticks in the craw of the many amnesty supporters on the thread.
Maybe just a little bit of poetic justice here.
Yes, in that and the fact that he could have gone to Canada in the first place, lived his life, no harm (locally), no foul.
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