Officials: EX-ISIS fighter entered U.S. as refugee
Man arrested, will be sent to Iraq under treaty
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An
Iraqi man accused of killing for the Islamic State entered the U.S. as a refugee after claiming to be a victim of terrorism, in a case drawing attention amid the Trump administration’s criticism of the resettlement program’s vetting process.
Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, 45, was arrested in California on Wednesday and will be extradited to Iraq under a treaty with that nation, U.S. officials said. He made his first appearance in federal court in Sacramento after his arrest at an apartment building in the state capital.
Ameen left Iraq and fled in 2012 to Turkey, where he applied to be accepted as a refugee to the U.S., according to court documents.
He was granted that status in June 2014. That same month, prosecutors say, he returned to Iraq, where he killed a police officer in the town of Rawah after it fell to IS.
Five months later, Ameen traveled to the United States to be resettled as a refugee.
Ameen was arrested by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force based on a warrant issued in May by an Iraqi federal court in Baghdad. Ameen could face execution for the “organized killing by an armed group,” according to Iraqi documents filed in U.S. federal court.
Benjamin Galloway, one of Ameen’s public defenders, said he had just 10 minutes to meet with his client prior to his initial court appearance, and attorneys hadn’t decided whether to contest that Ameen is the man wanted by Iraqi authorities.
Ameen did not disclose his membership in two terrorist groups when he later applied for a green card in the United States, officials said.
The Trump administration has sharply criticized the Obama-era resettlement program for not doing enough to keep out terrorists.
State Department and Department of Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to questions about Ameen.
Seamus Hughes, of George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, said most ISIS cases in the United States have involved U.s.-born citizens and that the case should be considered rare, but it illustrates holes in the system.
“There was clearly a number of tripwires that didn’t go off in this vetting process,” he said. “No doubt security officials will want to take a long hard look at how to improve the vetting program in the future.”
Resettlement agencies in the United States say the U.S. vetting process is one of the world’s toughest and has allowed in 3 million refugees since 1975 with not one arrested for carrying out a lethal terror attack on U.S. soil.
Most people spend at least three years being interviewed, undergoing biometric checks and medical exams and filling out paperwork before being approved for refugee status. Cases are screened by the Department of Defense, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies.