The former Nazi death camp guard and Clinton Township resident who was arrested Tuesday night is scheduled to appear before an immigration judge within seven to 10 days.Officials with the Department of Homeland Security said Johann Leprich, 77, will remain in federal custody while he awaits a bond hearing in Detroit. Leprich had eluded authorities for nearly 16 years before he was seized.
The Homeland Security and the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations assert in a document filed in U.S. Immigration Court that Leprich should be deported based on his service as an armed SS guard at Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Nazi-occupied Austria.
The document also charges Leprich for failing to comply with a statute requiring aliens residing in the U.S. to report their adresss to federal authorities.
``This arrest makes clear that those who participated in the atrocities of the Holocaust will not escape the determined reach of U.S. law enforcement, regardless of how much time has passed,'' Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday in a statement. ``Nazi collaborators will not find a safe haven in the United States.''
Leprich was arrested by federal agents who found him hiding in a secret compartment in the staircase of his Clinton Township home Tuesday night. Acting on a tip, police raided his home around 10:30 p.m.
His wife, Maria, 68, lived at the home and he was a frequent visitor, traveling back and forth between the United States and Canada, authorities said.
Leprich was stripped of his citizenship in 1987 for lying about his Nazi past after a U.S. District judge found that Leprich had worked as a guard at the camp.
Leprich went into hiding before authorities could deport him. His attorney told federal authorities that he'd left the United States.
In 1997, various media sources reported that Leprich had been seen in the Windsor area and was believed to living there.
``People who took part in these horrific crimes against humanity should know that we will never stop looking for them,'' Michael Garcia, the acting assistant secretary of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement. ``There is no statute of limitations on evil.''
Leprich immigrated to the U.S. in 1952 and became a naturalized citizen in 1958.
Since 1979, 71 Nazis have been stripped of U.S. citizenship and 57 have been removed from the United States. Contact SHAWN WINDSOR at 313-222-6487 or windsor@freepress.com.
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