Thread: US to deport ex-Salvadoran minister over rights violations

US to deport ex-Salvadoran minister over rights violations

AFP7 HOURS AGO

WASHINGTON D.C. — The U.S. upheld this week the deportation order of a former Salvadoran defense minister accused of grave human rights violations, including torture and extrajudicial killings, during the Central American country’s civil war.

Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, 78, was defense minister during the 1980-1992 war pitting a U.S.-backed government against leftist rebels, which left some 75,000 dead and another 7,000 missing.

As chief of the Civil Guard and later defense minister, Vides Casanova “participated” in acts of torture and extrajudicial executions by preventing, either by omission or commission, defendants from being taken to trial, the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals said.

His deportation had been ordered in 2012 but he lodged an appeal against it, arguing that he couldn’t prevent his subordinates from carrying out torture and extrajudicial killings when we has head of the Civil Guard.

That appeal was dismissed on Wednesday by the board, which is the top U.S. immigration authority.

Vides Casanova became head of the National Guard in 1979, and was promoted to defense minister in 1983.

He arrived in the U.S. in 1989 on an immigrant visa, but 20 years later the U.S. government began deportation proceedings over his alleged role in human rights crimes in El Salvador.

Read the Board of Immigration Appeals’ ruling here.

http://www.ticotimes.net/2015/03/13/us-to-deport-ex-salvadoran-minister-over-rights-violations

4/18/2011

http://www.alipac.us/f12/salvadoran-...orture-224198/

I.C.E. News Release

ENFORCEMENT AND REMOVAL

04/08/2015

ICE removes former El Salvador defense minister




WASHINGTON — A former minister of defense of El Salvador was removed from the United States by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Wednesday, after the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismissed his appeal and upheld an immigration judge's decision finding him removable for his role in the commission of human rights violations during the Civil War in El Salvador. The 1980-1992 war resulted in the death of more than 70,000 civilians.

In a published decision March 11, the BIA dismissed the appeal of Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, 77, the former director of the National Guard (1979-1983) and Minister of Defense (1983-1989) of El Salvador. The BIA decision upheld the August 2012 immigration judge's decision finding Vides Casanova removable for having "committed, ordered, incited, assisted or otherwise participated" in acts of torture and extrajudicial killing.

The BIA decision held that the totality of the record supported the conclusion that Vides Casanova's actions "fall within the definition of assisting or otherwise participating" in extrajudicial killing and torture, under the theory of command responsibility. This case was brought under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which added provisions relating to aliens who have committed, ordered, incited or otherwise participated in acts of torture or extrajudicial killings.

The decision specifically recognizes two Salvadoran torture survivors who testified in proceedings, as well as seven victims of extrajudicial killing, including four American churchwomen killed in December 1980 and two Americans and their Salvadoran colleague killed in January 1981.

"As this case makes clear, ICE is committed to ensuring that the United States does not become a safe haven for human rights abusers. We will work to bring perpetrators of such acts to justice and preserve the sanctity of the immigration system for legitimate refugees," said Thomas Homan, executive associate director of ICE ERO.

Vides Casanova was arrested in Florida March 25, and removed from the U.S. by ERO officers via an ICE Air Operations charter aircraft Wednesday, traveling from Alexandria, Louisiana, to San Salvador, El Salvador.

This case was litigated by ICE's Orlando Office of the Chief Counsel with the support of the Human Rights Law Section and the Immigration Law and Practice Division.

Since fiscal year 2004, ICE has arrested more than 296 individuals for human rights-related violations under various criminal and/or immigration statutes. During that same period, ICE obtained deportation orders and physically removed more than 740 known or suspected human rights violators from the United States. Currently, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations has more than 140 active investigations into suspected human rights violators and is pursuing more than 1,800 leads and removal cases involving suspected human rights violators from 97 different countries.

Over the last four years, ICE's Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center has issued more than 67,000 lookouts for individuals from more than 111 countries and stopped 161 human rights violators or war crime suspects from entering the United States.

Members of the public who have information about foreign nationals suspected of engaging in human rights abuses or war crimes are urged to contact ICE by calling the toll-free ICE tip line at 1-866-347-2423 or internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They can also email HRV.ICE@ice.dhs.gov or complete ICE's online tip form. ICE's tip line is staffed around the clock, and tips may be provided anonymously.

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ic...fense-minister

http://www.alipac.us/f12/u-s-deports...-coast-318778/