ICE deports ‘Black Diamond’ Liberian female war criminal

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(The Center Square) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers continue to arrest and deport war criminals. The latest is a female Liberian war lord and child soldier recruiter. After she moved to the U.S., she married a U.S. citizen, which did not protect her from deportation. 

Another Liberian who obtained lawful permanent resident status was indicted in Philadelphia for allegedly committing war crimes during the Liberian Civil War, ICE said. 

Liberian citizen Mayama Sesay, 43, was “successfully removed” to Liberia, ICE said. “Sesay, infamously known as the rebel commander ‘Black Diamond,’ played a prominent role in recruiting and leading child soldiers during Liberia’s civil wars.”

Despite this, she was granted entry into the U.S. in 2014 on a visitor’s visa. It would take 11 years for federal officials to investigate and remove her from the country. 

“Sesay commanded an all-female group of fighters known as the Women’s Artillery Commandos, part of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy [(LURD)], a rebel group formed to oppose former Liberian president Charles Taylor,” ICE said. LURD fought for several years until Taylor resigned and went into exile in 2003, ending the Second Liberian Civil War.

When Sesay was 22 years old, she “recruited and trained child soldiers to fight against Taylor’s forces,” ICE said. During the Liberia’s second civil war, Sesay “gained notoriety for her brutal tactics, including restraining and beating captured soldiers, and deploying mortar bombs to terrorize and kill military personnel and civilians,” ICE said. 

Liberia has designated Sesay as a war criminal.

Sesay entered the U.S. on a visitor’s visa in 2014, married a U.S. citizen, and not soon after applied for permanent residency. During her immigration interview, she denied she was “Black Diamond” or had any affiliation with LURD, ICE said. However, an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center found her claims to be false. 

An immigration judge determined “she lacked credibility and had used and recruited child soldiers” and ICE put her in removal proceedings. The judge ordered her removal to Liberia in 2022, which she appealed and lost. Three years later this spring, ICE Atlanta officers took her into custody to process her removal and remove her from the U.S.

In another case in Philadelphia, a former Liberian rebel general was sentenced to more than four years in prison “for concealing serious human rights violations to fraudulently obtain immigration status in the United States,” ICE announced. 

Laye Sekou Camara, 47, who was living in Mays Landing, New Jersey, entered the U.S. on an immigrant visa after “lying on” his application by “failing to admit he was involved in Liberia’s civil war,” ICE said. He later applied to and obtained lawful permanent resident status in 2010. 

He did so by “falsely stating on immigration forms that he had never participated in extrajudicial killings or other acts of violence; had never been involved with a paramilitary unit, rebel group, or guerilla group; and had never engaged in the recruitment or use of child soldiers,” ICE said. 

“As a leader in Liberia’s civil war, Mr. Camara facilitated atrocities against civilians in his own country — including the use of child soldiers,” ICE Homeland Security Investigations Philadelphia Special Agent in Charge Edward Owens said. “By concealing his crimes in Liberia, Camara was able to obtain immigration benefits and use those documents to seek employment and a new life in the United States. HSI will not allow the U.S. to become a refuge for human rights violators or for individuals who secure lawful status through deception.”

DHS’ HRVWC Center staff work to identify, locate and prosecute human rights abusers in the U.S., including those involved in war crimes, genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, female genital mutilation and using and/or recruiting child soldiers. 

The Liberian government and rebel groups fighting against it, including LURD, all used child soldiers, the Council on Foreign Relations notes. Taylor recruited children to join his rebel army to overthrow the previous government in the late 1980s, forming a special brigade called the Small Boys Unit, the council notes.

Human Rights Watch estimated 5,000 to 15,000 children were used as child soldiers during the Liberian conflict; the International Rescue Commission estimated that child soldiers comprised between 25% to 75% of total fighting forces in Liberia at the time. 

Since its inception in 2003, DHS’ HRVWC center has issued more than 79,000 lookouts for suspected human rights violators and prevented nearly 400 people from entering the U.S.

Members of the public are encouraged to report potential human rights violators living in the U.S. by contacting ICE at 866-DHS-2-ICE, online or through email, [email protected].