The administration of President Donald Trump is seeking to deport Blerim Skoro, a Kosovo-born father of three who claims he worked undercover for United States intelligence and infiltrated Al Qaeda following the September 11 attacks.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained the 55-year-old outside an immigration office in New Jersey on August 3, where he had gone to renew his immigration documents.
Skoro’s attorneys have petitioned a federal court to stop his deportation, maintaining that he was promised residency after years of service as a “CIA agent.”
Now working as a Staten Island cab driver and married to an American woman with whom he has children, Skoro was granted protection from deportation in 2022.
His lawyers maintain that his cooperation with US authorities contributed to the arrests of members of Al Qaeda, Al Shabab and other militant organisations.
“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.”
FBI records show that Skoro began working with US authorities after he was imprisoned on a heroin trafficking conviction in 2000.
While serving his sentence in Pennsylvania between 2002 and 2006, he reportedly supplied information concerning suspected terrorists and militants.
FBI documents listed Skoro as an informant in an investigation connected to Osama bin Laden and characterised some of the intelligence he provided as “actionable” and “reliable.”
After he was deported to Kosovo in 2007, Skoro said the CIA directed him to infiltrate Al Qaeda.
He alleged that he worked undercover between 2007 and 2009, travelling across several countries and entering a camp belonging to the terror group Daesh in Syria.
His lawyer, Joshua Dratel, said Skoro has maintained a “completely law-abiding, productive life with his family” since the operation, describing his experience on behalf of the United States as a “harrowing experience.”
Skoro said his identity was eventually compromised and that he survived an assassination attempt before returning to the United States in 2014. His immigration proceedings have remained unresolved for years.
A federal judge in 2022 blocked Skoro’s removal to Kosovo under the Convention Against Torture, although the decision did not provide him with permanent residency.
His attorneys contend that ICE breached that protection when it sought to deport him without obtaining permission from the court first.
