A U.S. immigration judge has ordered the deportation of a Liberian man who is accused of presiding over killings and the use of child soldiers during Liberia's civil war.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says the judge found 62-year-old George Boley "removable" from the United States.
Boley's case is the first time the agency has obtained a removal order under the 2008 Child Soldiers Accountability Act, which added the recruitment and use of child soldiers as grounds for deportation.
Boley is the former leader of a group known as the Liberian Peace Council, or LPC. His deportation order came after a trial in which U.S. immigration officials said the LPC burned to death and massacred captives in the 1990s.
Boley's son told the Associated Press that the judge in the case ignored important evidence presented on his father's behalf, and said his father had no knowledge of military operations.
Boley, whose residence is in Hilton, New York, has been held in a federal prison since his arrest in 2010.
In a statement, ICE Director John Morton says the United States has always been a place of refuge and freedom from oppression, and he said those coming to the U.S. should not be in danger of living near people who persecuted them in other countries.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
