U.S. v. Algimantas Dailide

Decision Date29 July 1998
Docket NumberNo. 97-3340,97-3340
Citation227 F.3d 385
Parties(6th Cir. 2000) United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Algimantas Dailide,Defendant-Appellant. Argued:
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio at Cleveland. No. 94-02499--Paul R. Matia, Chief District Judge.

Michael Anne Johnson, ASSISTANT UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Cleveland, Ohio, Jeffrey L. Menkin, Susan Masling, William Henry Kenety V, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, OFFICE OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS, Washington, D.C., Richard A. Olderman, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Staff, Washington, DC, for Appellee.

Joseph T. McGinness, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellant.

Before: NELSON, BOGGS, and CLAY, Circuit Judges.

CLAY, J., delivered the opinion of the court. NELSON, J. (p. 399), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part. BOGGS, J. (pp. 399-414), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.

OPINION

CLAY, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Algimantas Dailide appeals from the district court's order granting partial summary judgment to the United States, on Counts I and IV of the government's six-count complaint brought pursuant to § 340(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, 8 U.S.C. § 1451, seeking to revoke Dailide's citizenship and cancel the Certificate of Naturalization issued to him, while dismissing the remaining counts without prejudice. In Count I of the complaint, the government alleged that Dailide was guilty of the persecution of civilians in violation of § 2(b) of the Displaced Persons Act of 1948 ("DPA"); and, in Count IV of the complaint, the government alleged that Dailide made material misrepresentations during the immigration process which rendered him ineligible for admission to the United States under § 10 of the DPA. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

I.

Dailide was born on March 12, 1921, in Kaunas, Lithuania. On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Lithuania, along with its capital, Vilnius, and reestablished a police force known as the Saugumas that had existed under the Soviet occupation of Lithuania but had disbanded prior to the German invasion. Dailide voluntarily joined the Saugumas in 1941, and served until 1944, when the Saugumas dissolved along with the Nazi regime. According to Dailide, he was first hired as a Saugumas clerk in late June of 1941, and about six months later was then made a Saugumas police candidate. During this time, the infamous Aleksandras Lileikis became Chief of the Vilnius Saugumas1. Also during this period, Dailide claims that he worked in the Communist Section2 of the Saugumas for approximately two weeks, and then was transferred to the Information Section of the Saugumas, where he gathered background information on prospective employees, including their nationality and citizenship. Thereafter, around the end of 1942 or early 1943, Dailide contends that he was given a field assignment, at which time he was issued a firearm which he claims he carried but never used.

The record details the role the Saugumas played during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania as follows:

During the first days, apart from the formation of the partisan auxiliary squad, a Lithuanian Security Police and Criminal Police force was created. . . . The Lithuanian Security and Criminal Police operates according to the orders and guidelines provided to them by Einsatzkommando 3 and its activities are under constant surveillance [kontrolliert] and, as much as possible, they are used for security police work which cannot be performed by the SD's own personnel, particularly searches, arrests, and investigations. . . .

(J.A. at 501-02.) The Einsatzkommando 3 was a subunit of four mobile killing units responsible for the destruction of Jews in the Nazi-occupied areas of the Soviet Union. The Einsatzkommando 3, commanded by SS Colonel Jaeger, was specifically responsible for the execution of all Jews in the Vilnius region. The killing of the Vilnius Jews was conducted in three stages: 1) the Jews were arrested and transferred to Vilnius' Lukiskes Hard Labor Prison where they were kept in open cells; 2) the Jews were marched or driven from Lukiskes Prison to Paneriai, a wooded site about six miles outside Vilnius; and 3) the Jews were shot and killed in groups. The record indicates that SS Colonel Jaeger reported to SS General Stahlecker that the Einsatzkommando 3 accomplished its goal of eliminating Jews from Lithuania:

Today I can ascertain that the goal of solving the Jewish problem for Lithuania has been attained by Einsatzkommando 3. There are no Jews in Lithuania anymore, apart from work Jews, including their families. . . . I wanted to finish off these work Jews and their families as well but that brought me a sharp challenge from the Civilian Administration (the Reich Commissar) and the Wehrmacht [Armed Forces] and brought about this prohibition: These Jews and their families may not be shot!

(J.A. at 485.)

Dailide denies knowing that a relationship existed between the Saugumas and the German Police or military authorities. He also denies having any personal knowledge that Jews were shot at Paneriai, although he admits to having heard such a "rumor." However, according to the Government's expert historian, Dr. Yitzhak Arad, who has testified in similar denaturalization proceedings, by the end of 1941, approximately 30,000 Vilnius Jewish civilians had been killed by the Saugumas. Dr. Arad, who relied on records from the Lithuanian Central State Archives in Vilnius, on records from his own files, and on records held by the United States National Archives, stated in his affidavit that Vilnius killings were conducted in the three-step process described above, and, although the Jews arrested by the Saugumas were nearly always shot and killed, those Jews who were not initially killed were confined to one of two ghettos. According to Dr. Arad, ghetto conditions were wretched, in that the overcrowded conditions led to lice, filth, and disease; food and firewood were scarce; electrical appliances were banned; the exits of the ghettos were sealed by barbed-wire obstructions, and the doors and windows that faced the streets were barricaded; telephone and postal communications were forbidden; and Jews attempting to smuggle food into the ghetto were shot. The ghettos were liquidated in 1941 and in 1943, respectively, with a total of approximately 55,000 Vilnius Jewish civilians killed.

Dailide left Lithuania in 1944, and fled to Germany as a refugee. Dailide remained in Germany until 1949, and eventually entered the United States in 1950 as a non-quota immigrant under a DPA visa. In order to ultimately obtain his DPA visa, Dailide had to undergo a three-step process. First, he had to qualify as a refugee within "the concern" of the International Refugee Organization ("IRO"); second, he had to receive a determination of displaced-person status by the Displaced Persons Commission ("DPC"); and third, Dailide had to qualify for and receive a visa from the United States Department of State.

After apparently qualifying as a refugee under the IRO, Dailide completed a personal history form prepared by the United States Army's Counter Intelligence Corps. ("CIC"), an organization which conducted investigations and interviews of applicants on behalf of the DPC. The personal history form asked Dailide for the "[e]xact description" of his activities during the war. Dailide stated that during 1942-44 he was employed as a "practitioner forester" in Vilnius, Lithuania. Moreover, the form asked whether the applicant had been involved in any police service membership, to which Dailide responded, "No." Dailide claims to have concealed his membership in the Saugumas for fear of repatriation to the Soviet Union. Dailide eventually received displaced-person status, was granted a DPA visa, and entered the United States on February 19, 1950. Dailide then applied for naturalization on February 3, 1955, which was granted by order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on September 6, 1955. Dailide currently resides in Brecksville, Ohio.

In July of 1993, after Saugumas records became available to outside investigators, Immigration and Naturalization Service ("INS") agents and the Office of Special Investigations ("OSI") personnel interrogated Dailide at his office in Cleveland regarding his role in the Saugumas. Thereafter, on December 7, 1994, the Government filed a six-count complaint seeking to revoke Dailide's citizenship and cancel his certificate of naturalization pursuant to § 340(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 ("INA"), 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a). The government sought summary judgment on Count I, which alleged that Dailide was guilty of assisting the enemy in persecuting civil populations in violation of § 2(b) of the DPA, and on Count IV, which contended that Dailide made material misrepresentations during the critical stage of the immigration process in violation of § 10 of the DPA. The district court granted the government's motion for summary judgment on these two counts on January 29, 1997, and on February 28, 1997, the district court entered an amended order granting the government's motion, and dismissing the remaining counts without prejudice. See United States v. Dailide, 953 F. Supp. 192 (N.D. Ohio 1997). Dailide then filed a timely notice of appeal.

II. Standard of Review -- Summary Judgment & Denaturalization Proceedings

This Court reviews a district court's order granting summary judgment de novo. Equitable Life Assur. Soc'y v. Poe, 143 F.3d 1013, 1015 (6th Cir. 1998). Summary judgment is appropriate where "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that...

To continue reading

Request your trial
20 cases
  • United States v. Khaled Elsayed Mohammad Abo Al Dahab, Civil Action No. 15-514 (BAH).
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Columbia
    • April 19, 2017
  • U.S. v. Demjanjuk, 02-3529.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit
    • April 30, 2004
    ... ... We therefore recite only those facts most relevant to the appeal before us. John Demjanjuk is a native of the Ukraine, a republic of the former Soviet Union. Demjanjuk was ... United States v. Dailide, 316 F.3d 611, 618 (6th Cir.2003). Therefore, entry in the United States under an invalid visa is ... ...
  • United States v. Rahman
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan
    • March 27, 2020
  • United States v. Rahman
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan
    • April 20, 2020
    ...the facts of a case may be such that revocation of citizenship at the summary judgment stage may be appropriate." United States v. Dailide, 227 F.3d 385, 389 (6th Cir. 2000). Indeed, courts require "strict compliance with all the congressionally imposed prerequisites to the acquisition of c......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT