ICE Chicago removes former Liberian combatant who participated in killings, torture during Liberian civil wars

CHICAGO - ICE Chicago removed Amos Sheik Massaquoi, 55, to Liberia on Aug. 11, 2026. Massaquoi was a former Liberian combatant who is believed to have ordered and participated in extrajudicial killings, acts of torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, forced labor and the recruitment of child soldiers during the Liberian civil wars from 1989 to 2003.

Massaquoi is believed to have served as a chief bodyguard to Maj. Gen. Daniel Chea, a former leader of Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia. Massaquoi also received specialized 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 legally entered the United States in Aug. 2006 and was authorized to remain until Nov. 6, 2006. Homeland Security Investigations Maryland arrested him Aug. 23, 2019, for being illegally present in the United States. An immigration judge granted him bond on Oct. 7, 2019, and he was released.

ICE Baltimore arrested Massaquoi on April 1, 2025, for failing to comply with the terms of his release. A Department of Justice immigration judge ordered him removed on May 14, 2025.

ICE's arrest of Massaquoi is in keeping with the mandate of the American people to arrest and remove illegal aliens from American communities and President Trump and Secretary Mullin's promise to make America safe again.

"Amos Sheik Massaquoi's is believed to have engaged in cruelty and terror, marked by killings, torture, forced labor, 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 Center, will continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure this country never becomes a refuge for those who brutalize innocent people."

The Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center furthers the government's efforts to identify, locate and prosecute human rights abusers in the U.S., including those who are known or suspected to have participated in 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 violations of the law under various criminal and immigration statutes. During the same period, ICE obtained deportation orders against, and physically removed from the United States, 1,178 known or suspected human rights violators and facilitated the departures of an additional 208. The Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center has issued more than 80,000 lookouts for potential perpetrators of human rights abuses and has stopped over 415 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the U.S.

If you have information about potential former human rights violators in the United States, contact U.S. law enforcement through the ICE Tip Line at 866-DHS-2-ICE or by filling out the online tip form. You can also email [email protected].