CHICAGO: A Pakistani national, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for conspiring to blow up south Florida power stations and a National Guard Armory in 2002, was deported Monday by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).
Imran Farooq Mandhai, 32, pleaded guilty in August 2002 in the Southern District of Florida to conspiring to bomb electrical power stations and a National Guard Armory as part of a jihad mission in the United States. The U.S. District Court sentenced Mandhai to 140 months in federal prison in October 2002; he was subsequently re-sentenced in October 2004 to 168 months in federal prison.
ICE took Mandhai into custody March 9, 2015 following his release from the Terre Haute Federal Correctional Institution in Indiana. He was ordered removed from the United States March 26 by a federal immigration judge.
ERO officers removed Mandhai from the United States to Karachi, Pakistan, via commercial aircraft that departed Chicago O’Hare International Airport May4. Upon arrival in Pakistan May 6, ERO officers turned over Mandhai to Pakistani officials.
“ICE will continue to focus its enforcement operations on identifying, arresting and removing convicted criminals who pose the greatest risk to our communities,” said ERO Chicago Field Office Director Ricardo Wong. “Removing identified terrorists from the United States is critical in securing America’s borders and safeguarding the country.”
In fiscal year 2014, ERO removed 315,943 individuals from the United States. In addition to convicted criminals, the agency’s enforcement priorities include those apprehended while attempting to unlawfully enter the United States, illegal re-entrants — individuals who returned to the United States after being previously removed by ICE — and immigration fugitives. In fiscal year 2014, 98 percent of ICE removals met these priorities.
