The administration of President Donald Trump is seeking to deport Blerim Skoro, a Kosovo-born father of three who says he worked undercover for US intelligence and infiltrated al-Qaeda after 9/11, CBS News reported Wednesday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested the 55-year-old outside an immigration office in New Jersey on Aug. 3, where he had gone to renew his paperwork.
His lawyers have asked a federal court to halt the deportation, arguing Skoro was promised residency after years of work as a “CIA agent.”
Now a Staten Island cab driver with an American wife and children, Skoro received protection from deportation in 2022 because of the danger he could face in Kosovo.
His lawyers say his cooperation helped authorities arrest members of al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab and Hezbollah.
“I never thought they were going to betray me like this,” he told CBS News from the Elizabeth Detention Center. “Please, if I die, I should die in this country so my kids can bury me.”
According to FBI records, Skoro began cooperating with US authorities after being imprisoned for heroin trafficking in 2000.
From 2002 to 2006, while serving his sentence in Pennsylvania, Skoro provided information on suspected militants.
FBI documents identified him as an informant in an investigation involving Osama bin Laden and described some of his information as “actionable” and “reliable.”
After being deported to Kosovo in 2007, Skoro said the CIA instructed him to infiltrate al-Qaeda.
He claimed he operated undercover from 2007 to 2009, traveling through several countries and visiting an ISIS/Daesh camp in Syria.
His attorney, Joshua Dratel, said Skoro has since lived a “completely law-abiding, productive life with his family” after what he called a “harrowing experience” carried out for the United States.
Skoro said his cover was eventually exposed and that he survived an assassination attempt before returning to the US in 2014. His immigration case has continued for years.
In 2022, a federal judge barred his removal to Kosovo under the Convention Against Torture, citing the risk of torture or murder, though the ruling did not grant him permanent residency.
His lawyers argued ICE violated that protection by attempting to deport him without first obtaining judicial permission.