Twenty-one bipartisan members of New York state’s congressional delegation have signed their names to a letter urging Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to once and for all deport Jakiw Palij, a 92-year-old Queens resident who was stripped of his U.S. citizenship over a decade ago for his involvement in the Holocaust.
Lawmakers including House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley and Republican Peter King are among the signatories who autographed Wednesday’s letter to Mr. Tillerson – the latest in a series of efforts out of the Empire State to purge Palij over his past Nazi ties.
Palij immigrated to the U.S. in 1949 and was granted citizenship seven years later, according to the Justice Department. He was stripped of his citizenship in 2003, however, after authorities learned he had concealed his job as a guard at a Nazi forced labor camp linked to the slaying of more than 6,000 innocent prisoners in 1943.
A federal immigration judge agreed to depot Palij in 2004, but he’s remained in Queens ever since because not a single country has volunteered to accept him.
“As member from New York’s Congressional delegation representing constituencies personally affected by the horrors of the Holocaust, we are deeply concerned that the deportation of Mr. Palij is stalled and urge your personal intervention on the matter. Without very high-level involvement by your office and others in the administration, it appears likely that countries will not be willing to accept him,” the lawmakers wrote to Mr. TIllerson.
“Those who participated in the atrocities of the Holocaust have no place in our communities. The Nazis’ crimes were beyond heinous, and we have the responsibility to pursue justice on behalf of their victims,” Mr. Crowley added.
Mr. Crowley personally appealed to Mr. Tillerson to expedite Palij’s deportation earlier this year and has pleaded for assistance from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security in recent months. With Wednesday’s letter, however, he’s backed this time by 20 other lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.
“Jakiw Palij has yet to face justice, and it’s a dishonor to the Jewish people and millions of Holocaust victims that he continues to live freely in New York City,” added Republican co-signor Rep. Dan Donovan. “Those complicit in the Holocaust’s atrocities don’t deserve to enjoy the rights they took from others. I hope that Mr. Palij is swiftly deported.”
Correspondence to the secretary of state will be reviewed and responded to appropriately, an agency spokesperson told The Washington Times.
Palij previously denied being a Nazi collaborator, and he told The New York Times in a rare 2003 interview that he had been forced him to become a guard.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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