Southern Illinois judge revokes citizenship of terrorist who plotted with Al Qaeda
A federal court magistrate judge from the Southern District of Illinois has revoked the U.S. citizenship of a Pakistani-born truck driver who is also a convicted terrorist.
lyman Faris, 50, came to the United States in 1994 using another person’s passport and visa and became a naturalized citizen in 1999.
He then plotted with members of Al Qaeda — meeting directly with its leader, Osama bin Laden — on potential terrorist attacks that included collapsing the Brooklyn Bridge, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Faris was convicted in 2003 in the Eastern District of Virginia and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Federal Judge Staci M. Yandle, a Centreville native who sits on the bench at the federal courthouse in Benton, ordered Faris’ citizenship revoked Wednesday, which is the likely first step toward a deportation order upon his release from prison in August, according to the Justice Department.
The question of Faris’ citizenship was left to a judge in the Southern District of Illinois because Faris is serving his sentence at the U.S. penitentiary in Marion.
“Faris’ admitted affiliation with al Qaeda within five years after naturalizing, established that he was not attached to the principles of the constitution and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States,” Yandle wrote in her judgment.
In 2017, Yandle denied a petition by the U.S. Attorney’s Office to revoke Faris’ citizenship because, she ruled, it hadn’t proven definitively that Faris’ deceptions played a role in his naturalization.
“American citizenship is precious,” she said at the time, according to a Politico article, “and the government carries a heavy burden of proof when attempting to divest a naturalized citizen of his or her citizenship.”
According to information released via a U.S. Department of Justice press release, Faris traveled to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan in 2000 where he met with Osama bin Laden and other “high-ranking” members of the network. There, he helped research ultra-light airplanes and arranged for airline tickets for Al Qaeda operatives.
In 2002, Faris was involved in an early plot to collapse the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City using gas cutters.
“What Faris did is unconscionable. He pretended to support the United States and the Constitution to naturalize while he actively supported Usama bin Laden and senior Al Qaeda leadership in their plans to attack the United States,” said Jody Hunt, assistant U.S. attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Division, through a statement. “The denaturalizaion of Faris and others who similarly defraud the United States helps defend the integrity of the immigration system, promote the rule of law and make America safer.”
Steven D. Weinhoeft, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois called Faris “a traitor to the oath he took denouncing foreign allegiances and pledging to defend the constitution and our American way of life.”
This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 2:54 PM.
