An illegal immigrant sex offender was working as a college professor in Michigan before he was swept up in the Trump administration’s mass deportation raids.
Sumith Gunasekera of Sri Lanka first entered the United States in February 1998, before leaving for Canada. He returned later that year on a student visa and with a rap sheet, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He told officers during his latest arrest that he was an associate professor at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.
When he tried to apply for a different form of immigration status in 2012, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services discovered that he had been convicted of crimes in Canada.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement nabbed him in Detroit earlier this month.
“It’s sickening that a sex offender was working as a professor on an American college campus and was given access to vulnerable students to potentially victimize them,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a Tuesday statement.
“Thanks to the brave ICE law enforcement officers, this sicko is behind bars and no longer able to prey on Americans. His days of exploiting the immigration system are OVER. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, criminals are not welcome in the U.S.,” she said.
Authorities in Ontario arrested Gunasekera in August 1998 for uttering death threats, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was rearrested three days later for invitation to sexual touching and sexual interference against a victim he admitted was a minor.
In November 1998, a court in Brampton, Ontario, convicted Gunasekera of uttering a threat to cause death or bodily harm and sexual interference, sentencing him to one month of incarceration and one year of probation.
The illegal immigrant then found himself back in cuffs in Las Vegas in 2003 for open and gross lewdness, according to the feds.
A Las Vegas court convicted Gunasekera in 2004 of disorderly conduct, sentencing him to fines.
The school has since placed Gunasekera on leave, they said in a statement.
“Ferris State University leaders on Tuesday became aware of accusations regarding Professor Sumith Gunasekera. He has been placed on administrative leave while the university gathers more information,” FSU Associate Vice President for Marketing and Communications Dave Murray said, according to local reports.
“This is a personnel issue and it would be inappropriate for the university to further discuss the matter,” Murray added.
The Trump administration’s immigration sweeps have yielded the arrests of several educators.
Federal immigration agents nabbed the then-superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, Ian Andre Roberts, who turned out to be an illegal immigrant from Guyana with a deportation order he ignored.
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