President Trump celebrated ICE for the apprehension of a former Nazi SS guard living in New York who was deported. Trump praised the organization during his rally in West Virginia on Tuesday night, noting that the deportation order had been in place for over a decade.

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“Today our brave ICE officers successfully carried out a 14-year-old deportation order against a Nazi criminal, who was living in New York. The last known Nazi officer living in the United States,” the president stated. “They’ve been trying to get him out for decades. President Obama tried, they all tried. We got him out, gone. He’s gone. He’s back in Germany.” (RELATED: Inside Trump’s Order To Deport Last Living Nazi In US)

“ICE officers are heroes who uphold our laws and they really do, they uphold our laws and they defend our communities like nobody you have ever seen. And yes, they are tough, they are strong, they are smart [and] they have great heart,” he continued.

The United States had been trying to deport Jakiw Palij for over a decade but had been unsuccessful until Tuesday.

He was ordered to be deported from the U.S. in 2004, but his case has been particularly vexing to U.S. authorities over the years because he was born in a part of Poland that is presently Ukrainian territory — and he was never actually a German citizen. All three countries had refused since 2004 to accept Palij.

President Trump was in West Virginia campaigning for Republican Patrick Morrisey who is running against incumbent Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

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