Five men have arrived at the suburban Cleveland home of John Demjanjuk as he awaits deportation to Germany, where he faces charges he was a Nazi death camp guard.

The men arrived in unmarked cars, and an SUV arrived later, after one man said on a cell phone said "John can't get out of bed."

Meanwhile, Demjanjuk's son was at a federal appeals court in Cincinnati, filing a request to halt deportation.

John Demjanjuk Jr. says it's urgent that the court act quickly, because he has been told that immigration agents would be at his father's home to pick him up and depart from Cleveland at 3 p.m.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

CLEVELAND (AP) — A lawyer for John Demjanjuk said U.S. immigration officials have told him they want to pick up the retired Ohio autoworker on Tuesday for deportation to Germany, where an arrest warrant alleges the frail 89-year-old was a Nazi death camp guard.

John Broadley, in Washington, said a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement official told him about the plans. Shortly before 1 p.m., John Demjanjuk Jr. was at the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turning in documents to request a stay and ask the court to reopen the U.S. case that ordered him deported.

Broadley said the elder Demjanjuk is bedridden due to poor health.

Pat Reilly, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reached on cell phone Tuesday, said the federal agency is not commenting on the case.

The filing at the U.S. appeals court would set up another venue where Demjanjuk (pronounced dem-YAHN'-yuk) of suburban Cleveland can try to show that he is too sick to travel.

His family has said he is in constant pain from several ailments and that being deported to Germany amounts to torture.

"Again, he will stand trial for his life — not this time by hanging but by the cruel and inhumane condition of transport and the stress of arrest, confinement and trial of this now 89 year old man who is in poor health," the motion says

It asks the appeals court to consider Demjanjuk's health and age and says that during the trip to Germany he would be attended by medical personnel interested in keeping him stable "in order to deliver him to German authorities who clearly have their own agenda."

German prosecutors claim Demjanjuk was an accessory to some 29,000 deaths during World War II at the Sobibor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Once in Germany, he could be formally charged in court.

Demjanjuk, a native Ukrainian, has denied being a Nazi guard, long claiming he was a prisoner of war of the Germans. He came to the United States after the war as a refugee.

Demjanjuk had been tried in Israel after accusations surfaced that he was the notorious Nazi guard "Ivan the Terrible" in Poland at the Treblinka death camp. He was found guilty in 1988 of war crimes and crimes against humanity, a conviction later overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court.

A U.S. judge revoked his citizenship in 2002, based on Justice Department evidence showing he concealed his service at Sobibor and some other Nazi-run death and forced labor camps. An immigration judge ruled in 2005 he could be deported to Germany, Poland or Ukraine.

Guenther Maull, a Munich-based lawyer for Demjanjuk said earlier Tuesday that his client could arrive in Germany on Wednesday.

The Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Va., on Friday denied his motion for an emergency stay.

The U.S. Justice Department has opposed his previous appeals.

———

Associated Press Writers Terry Kinney in Cincinnati, Kantele Franko in Columbus and Roland Losch in Munich contributed to this report.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/WireStory?id=7334397&page=2