(CNN) A former Nazi labor camp guard who had been living in the United States for decades is unlikely to face prosecution in Germany, a German official told CNN Wednesday.

Jakiw Palij, who worked as a guard at the Trawniki Labor Camp in what was then German-occupied Poland, was deported after years of diplomatic wrangling, the White House announced on Tuesday. He had been living out his post-war years in Queens, New York City.

But there isn't enough evidence to support a case against Palij, according to Jens Rommel of the Central Office for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes.

"Mere membership in the SS or even training in the Trawniki camp is no longer prosecutable under our current law," Rommel said. "That means we would have to prove, here in Germany, that an individual has either committed a murder on his own or has supported the murders of others through his actions."

Palij, 95, was born in what was then Poland and is now Ukraine, and immigrated to the US in 1949, becoming a citizen in 1957. The former Nazi guard lied to US immigration officials about his role in World War II, saying he worked on a farm and in a factory, the White House said in a statement.