US deports Nigerian man and revokes his citizenship for sexually abusing a 7-year-old girl (photo)

A Nigerian man was deported on Thursday after his U.S. citizenship was revoked in April following his conviction for indecency with a 7-year-old girl, a felony offense which he committed before he was naturalized.

In a press release by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Deportation officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) removed Emmanuel Olugbenga Omopariola, 61, to Nigeria May 24. He had been in ICE custody in the Dallas area since his arrest on April 18, 2018, when he surrendered himself at the ERO Dallas Field Office. He departed Dallas May 23 under ICE escort to Nigeria via JFK International Airport in New York City. He arrived in Ikeja, Nigeria, about 2:20 p.m. local time (9:20 a.m. CDT).

“This deportation ends this U.S. chapter for Omopariola who sabotaged his own future and opportunities through his heinous crimes against a child, and his lies on his naturalization application and in interviews,” said Simona L. Flores, field office director of ERO Dallas. “By effecting such removals, ICE helps improve public safety and enforces U.S. immigration law.”

Omopariola originally legally entered the United States on March 25, 1983 at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on a nonimmigrant student visa.

According to  Consent Judgment by the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas, Omopariola was naturalized as a U.S. citizen July 1, 2004. During his naturalization proceedings, Omopariola withheld that he unlawfully engaged in sexual contact with a 7-year-old girl in 2002. This crime, even though he had not yet been arrested or convicted, “…rendered him unable to demonstrate the requisite good moral character for naturalization and, thus, ineligible for naturalization when he took the oath of allegiance…He therefore illegally procured his naturalization.”

After he was naturalized, Omopariola pleaded guilty in Texas state court in 2015 to indecency with a child — sexual contact, a second-degree felony. He was ordered to five years of community supervision and placed on the sex offender registry. He had been residing in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Omopariola was one of five child sex abusers that the Justice Department sought to denaturalize who were highlighted in Nov. 21, 2017.