Olugbenga Omopariola, a 61-year-old Nigerian man who had naturalized in the United States of America, has been stripped of his US citizenship and deported.
Omopariola, who first arrived the US with a student visa in March 1983, was convicted for indecency with a 7-year-old girl, a felony offense which he committed before he was naturalized, according to the official website of the US department of Homeland Security.
“Deportation officers with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) removed Emmanuel Olugbenga Omopariola, 61, to Nigeria May 24,” read a statement on the website.
“He had been in ICE custody in the Dallas area since his arrest on April 18, 2018, when he surrendered himself at the ERO Dallas Field Office.
“He departed Dallas May 23 under ICE escort to Nigeria via JFK International Airport in New York City. He arrived in Ikeja, Nigeria, about 2:20 p.m. local time.”
Commenting on the development, Simona Flores, Field Office Director of ERO said removing such persons as Omopariola will improve public safety in the country.
“This deportation ends this U.S. chapter for Omopariola who sabotaged his own future and opportunities through his heinous crimes against a child, and his lies on his naturalization application and in interviews,” Flores said.
“By effecting such removals, ICE helps improve public safety and enforces U.S. immigration law.”
Omopariola was naturalized as a U.S. citizen July 1, 2004, but during his naturalization process, he withheld that he unlawfully engaged in sexual contact with a 7-year-old girl in 2002.
Even though was not arrested or convicted at the time, the crime rendered him unable to demonstrate the requisite good moral character for naturalization and, thus, ineligible for naturalization when he took the oath of allegiance.
“He therefore illegally procured his naturalization,” ruled the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas.
Omopariola, who resided in Grand Prairie, Texas, pleaded guilty in the Texas state court in 2015 to indecency with a child — sexual contact, a second-degree felony.
He was ordered to five years of community supervision and placed on the sex offender registry.
Omopariola was one of five child sex abusers that the Justice Department sought to denaturalize after they were highlighted in a press release in Nov. 21, 2017.