STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLE

Those who perpetrate serious human rights violations abroad, including genocide, torture, extrajudicial killing, and persecution, should not find refuge in the United States and should face accountability for their crimes.

BRINGING HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATORS TO JUSTICE

The Office of Special Investigations (OSI) is part of an interagency federal effort to identify suspected perpetrators of human rights violations who have entered the United States and to prosecute them in the United States under applicable laws and/or remove (deport) or extradite them to countries or international tribunals that can try them for their crimes.  Within this multi-agency effort, OSI is responsible for identifying human rights violators who have obtained U.S. citizenship and for taking legal action, through civil or criminal charges, to revoke that citizenship so that they can face appropriate measures to hold them accountable. The Domestic Security Section which like OSI is part of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, is responsible for prosecuting persons for the federal criminal offenses of war crimes, genocide and torture and for bringing other pertinent criminal charges against aliens present in the United States who have committed human rights violations abroad.  OSI and DSS work closely together and with the Department of Homeland Security and other domestic and foreign authorities to deny safe haven and impunity to human rights violators.

OSI was originally created in 1979 to investigate and prosecute participants in World War II-era acts of Nazi-sponsored persecution (see below).  The office’s success in pursuing that mission precipitated an expansion of its responsibilities on December 17, 2004, when President George W. Bush signed into law the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA).  Following IRTPA’s enactment, OSI gained responsibility for investigating and bringing legal actions in federal court to revoke the United States citizenship of any naturalized U.S. citizen who committed, ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated abroad in genocide or, under color of foreign law, torture or extrajudicial killing.  OSI employs a variety of criminal and civil statutes to this end, including: United States Code Title 18, Sections 1015 (the crime of false statements pertaining to naturalization), 1425 (the crime of unlawful procurement of citizenship) and 1546 (the crime of fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents); and Title 8, Section 1451 (civil prosecution for illegal procurement of citizenship).

JUSTICE FOR WORLD WAR II CRIMES

Created by Attorney General Order in 1979 in response to enactment of the so-called Holtzman Amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act the previous year, OSI’s original mission, which it is still pursuing, was to detect, investigate, and prosecute any U.S. citizen or resident who assisted or otherwise participated in perpetrating acts of persecution on behalf of Nazi Germany or its Axis allies during the period 1933 to 1945.  As crimes committed against non-Americans outside the United States during that period are not within the criminal jurisdiction of U.S. courts, OSI prosecutes Nazi and Axis persecutors under the civil immigration laws, seeking to denaturalize those who have obtained U.S. citizenship and ultimately to remove or extradite all such persecutors from the United States, preferably to countries in which they might stand trial for their crimes.  As of 2008, OSI has successfully prosecuted 107 Nazi persecutors.  OSI has also worked closely with the Department of Homeland Security to stop more than180 former European and Japanese Axis perpetrators and suspected perpetrators of acts of persecution at U.S. ports of entry and bar them from entering the United States.  Additionally, OSI has investigated and reported publicly on the postwar employment of Nazi criminals and collaborators by U.S. intelligence agencies and on the fate of gold and artwork looted from Nazi victims, and the unit helped lead efforts to declassify and release to the public U.S. Government records pertaining to Axis war criminals.  As a result of OSI’s record in identifying, investigating and denying refuge in the United States to Nazi persecutors, the United States is the only country in the world to have won the “A” rating from the Simon Wiesenthal Center for effectiveness in pursuing justice for Holocaust crimes.

HOW TO REPORT A SUSPECTED HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATOR

OSI actively seeks out information that may assist the U.S. Government in identifying human rights violators who may have entered the United States.  If you know of anyone in the United States or of any U.S. citizen anywhere in the world who may have been involved in perpetrating human rights violations abroad, you may report that information to OSI at ositips@usdoj.gov and be confident that it will be brought to the attention of the appropriate authorities.  You do not have to identify yourself when providing information.  Information on suspected human rights violators living in the United States may also be reported telephonically, to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Department of Homeland Security at 1-866-347-2423.

For more information about OSI, please consult the links available on this page.