JURIST - Paper Chase: Federal court revokes US citizenship of former Nazi guard, orders deportation

[JURIST] Judges for the US Court of Appeals for The Third Circuit revoked [opinion, PDF] the US citizenship of a former Nazi guard on Tuesday because he had obtained it illegally. The US Department of Justice alleged [complaint] that Anton Geiser, an 83-year-old Pennsylvania resident, served as an SS guard at two concentration camps before the US government mistakenly granted him a visa in 1956 and then citizenship in 1962. In 2006, a district court judge ordered the revocation [opinion, PDF] of Geiser's citizenship, writing that it was legally necessary [8 USC s. 1451] because the citizenship was based on a visa he was ineligible to receive [Refugee Relief Act of 1953 s. 14]. Under US law, a visa may not be granted to anyone who was involved in persecutions based on "race, religion or national origin." Geiser appealed, arguing that the term "persecution" was ambiguous, but the appellate court denied the claim and affirmed the district court's ruling. AP has more.

The Department of Justice's Office of Special Investigations (OSI) [official website] handles cases, including Geiser's, aimed at denaturalizing or deporting former Nazis who participated in wartime persecutions. In 2002 a judge revoked the US citizenship [JURIST report] of former Nazi concentration camp guard and Ohio resident John Demjanjuk [JURIST news archive] after a judge found that World War II evidence showed he worked in the Nazi concentration camps. In 2006, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit refused to overturn [opinion, PDF] a lower court decision upholding the order revoking former Nazi guard Johann Leprich's [JURIST report] citizenship.

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