Chicago man deported for Nazi service

By · November 18, 2007

A Chicago man was ordered to be deported for his role in a Nazi-operated Ukranian police unit.

Osyp Firishchak, 87, was sent back to his native Ukraine on Friday by a federal immigration judge, Robert Vinikoor, on the basis of his service in the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police during World War II. Firishchak, who was born in Trebuszany, in present-day Ukraine, immigrated to the United States in 1949 and became a U.S. citizen in 1954.

Firishchak was stripped of his citizenship in 2005 by a federal district court, which ruled that he “was a participant in an organization that perpetrated some of the most horrific acts against human decency ever known in history.” Firishchak concealed his UAP service when he came to the United States.

The Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, which looked into the case, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the Department of Homeland Security brought the removal action against Firishchak in March.

“Osyp Firishchak and his fellow UAP policemen played a central role in the murder of more than 100,000 Jewish men, women and children of Nazi-occupied L’viv,” OSI director Eli Rosenbaum said. “This order is another victory for the principle that the United States will not provide a safe haven for human-rights violators no matter how long ago the crimes were committed.”