Amos Sheik Massaquoi, a 55 year old Liberian national described by US officials as a criminal illegal immigrant, has been removed from the United States after authorities said he took part in serious abuses during his country’s civil wars.
CHICAGO: Officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Chicago removed Amos Sheik Massaquoi to Liberia on 11 August 2026. Officials said the former combatant is believed to have ordered and taken part in extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, forced labour and the recruitment of child soldiers during the Liberian civil wars from 1989 to 2003.
Massaquoi is believed to have served as chief bodyguard to Major General Daniel Chea, a former leader of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia. He also received specialised military training at a military academy in China in 2004.
“If you are a confirmed human rights violator and you believe you can hide in the United States, you are mistaken,” said ICE Chicago Field Office Director Frank Padula. “ICE will pursue, arrest and remove any individuals who committed atrocities abroad and ensure our communities are not used as a sanctuary from accountability.”
Massaquoi entered the United States legally in August 2006 and was authorised to remain until 6 November 2006. Homeland Security Investigations Maryland arrested him on 23 August 2019 for being illegally present. An immigration judge granted him bond on 7 October 2019 and he was released.
ICE Baltimore arrested him again on 1 April 2025 for failing to comply with the terms of his release. A Department of Justice immigration judge ordered him removed on 14 May 2025.
Officials said the case formed part of a wider effort to arrest and remove illegal immigrants from American communities and to honour pledges by President Trump and Secretary Mullin to make America safe again.
“Amos Sheik Massaquoi is believed to have engaged in cruelty and terror, marked by killings, torture, forced labour, unlawful imprisonment and the recruitment of children into armed conflict,” said HSI Maryland Special Agent in Charge Akil Baldwin. “If it is confirmed that an individual has engaged in such bloodshed anywhere in the world, then you have no place in the United States. HSI Maryland, with essential support from the HSI led Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Centre, will continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure this country never becomes a refuge for those who brutalise innocent people.”
The Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Centre works to identify, locate and prosecute people in the United States suspected of persecution, war crimes, genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, female genital mutilation or the use or recruitment of child soldiers. Since 2003 ICE has arrested more than 520 people for human rights related offences under criminal and immigration law. In the same period it obtained deportation orders against and physically removed 1,178 known or suspected human rights violators and helped a further 208 to leave. The centre has issued more than 80,000 lookouts for possible perpetrators and has stopped more than 415 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the United States.
By A.Ikechukwu
