ICE removes violent paramilitary war criminal and terrorist to Ethiopia

ELOY, Ariz. - On March 4, ICE removed Solomon Bogale, a member of the deadly paramilitary organization Fano, back to Ethiopia. Fano has been designated as a terrorist group by the Ethiopian government.

Bogale, a native and citizen of Ethiopia, entered the United States on Sept. 16, 2023, without inspection. U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered him two days later and instituted removal proceedings.

"Our officers continue to effect the removal of suspected human rights violators to their home countries," said ERO Phoenix acting Field Office Director Christopher McGregor. "ERO officers are committed to public safety and national security, and removing this individual from the United States serves both those priorities."

An immigration judge in Baltimore, Maryland, denied Bogale immigration benefits after ICE discovered numerous social media accounts where he openly identified himself as a member of Fano, a Tier III terrorist group. In his posts, Bogale called for the persecution of and violence against ethnic Tigrayans through their "cleansing" from Ethiopia. The case was litigated by ICE's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor in Baltimore with help from the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center.

The HSI-led 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].