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Thursday, March 28, 2024

ICE Returns Charles Taylor’s Former Bodyguard to Liberia

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a news release Monday that agents returned a Liberian national to his home country on grounds that he is suspected of violating human rights and being aligned with a terrorist organization.

Charles Cooper, 45, had served as a bodyguard to former Liberian President Charles Taylor and was a member of a paramilitary police unit before coming to the United States. Enforcement and Removal Operations deportation officers returned him to Liberia on June 19, according to ICE.

“This individual is a human rights violator; he was a member of an organization known for setting fires to whole villages, and it is because of the diligence of ICE and its officers that this man is no longer living comfortably within our communities,” said Thomas Decker, field office director for ERO New York. “It is important to note that the safety of the public is our top priority, and ICE continues to target criminal aliens taking refuge in our cities after having committed crimes in their home country.”​

ICE said it discovered in an investigation that prior to coming to the U.S. Cooper was directly involved in the persecution of civilians in Liberia and had joined a rebel group that committed numerous human rights violations. The group was founded by the former Liberian president.

Cooper traveled to the U.S. in January 2006 as a non-immigrant visitor, authorized to stay until August 2006, ICE said. Cooper did not exit the U.S. and was placed into removal proceedings in December 2006.

ICE said Cooper was ordered for removal by an immigration judge in Baltimore in August 2014. He appealed that decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which dismissed the appeal in February 2016. In August 2017, Cooper was arrested by police in New York on DWI charges. ERO deportation officers lodged an immigration detainer, but New York police released Cooper without notifying ICE or allowing him to enter ERO custody.

Cooper was again arrested May 5 on Staten Island by ERO deportations officers.

Taylor, Liberia’s former leader during the civil war from 1998-2002, was sentenced to 50 years in prison by a court in Sierra Leone, which found him guilty of war crimes.

A 2012 New York Times analysis alleged that Taylor armed groups of rebel militias that committed murder, rape and torture on civilians throughout the 1990s.

ICE said Cooper was transferred into the custody of Liberian law enforcement authorities upon arrival in the nation’s capital, Monrovia.

ICE Returns Charles Taylor's Former Bodyguard to Liberia Homeland Security Today
Brad Allen
Brad M. Allen is a young journalist from Janesville, Wisconsin. He is currently studying Political Journalism and Economics at George Mason University, and he has recently completed his eighth semester of college at UW-Whitewater, where he studies Journalism. He is slated to graduate from UW-Whitewater in December 2018. Brad has worked with two newspaper publications in the southern Wisconsin area, those being The Royal Purple student-run newspaper at UW-Whitewater and the Janesville Gazette daily newspaper. Thus far in his time at the Royal Purple, Brad has been a prominent member of the editorial team in several roles ranging from the Business section editor to Managing Editor. A fair portion of his reporting experience there has involved investigating federal policy and national issues and interviewing officials and economists in southern Wisconsin to boil those issues down to a local level. At the Janesville Gazette, Brad designs newspaper pages containing stories on various state, national and international issues. His job there involves reading and dissecting content written by organizations such as the Associated Press and Tribune News Services to choose which stories will be most relevant to readers in Janesville.
Brad Allen
Brad Allen
Brad M. Allen is a young journalist from Janesville, Wisconsin. He is currently studying Political Journalism and Economics at George Mason University, and he has recently completed his eighth semester of college at UW-Whitewater, where he studies Journalism. He is slated to graduate from UW-Whitewater in December 2018. Brad has worked with two newspaper publications in the southern Wisconsin area, those being The Royal Purple student-run newspaper at UW-Whitewater and the Janesville Gazette daily newspaper. Thus far in his time at the Royal Purple, Brad has been a prominent member of the editorial team in several roles ranging from the Business section editor to Managing Editor. A fair portion of his reporting experience there has involved investigating federal policy and national issues and interviewing officials and economists in southern Wisconsin to boil those issues down to a local level. At the Janesville Gazette, Brad designs newspaper pages containing stories on various state, national and international issues. His job there involves reading and dissecting content written by organizations such as the Associated Press and Tribune News Services to choose which stories will be most relevant to readers in Janesville.

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