A Justice Department official has admitted that a second country has turned down a U.S. request for permanent residence for Rumanian Orthodox Archbishop Valarian Trifa of Grass Lake, Mich.
Kathleen Coleman, the Justice Department attorney who presented the government’s case during Trifa’s deportation hearings in Detroit, said that Italy has pined Switzerland in turning down the U.S. request to take in Trifa. Coleman said the U.S. will continue its efforts to find a foreign home for him.
Trifa voluntarily agreed to deportation last October. The U.S. had charged that he hid his ties to the fascist Rumanian Iron Guard when he entered the U.S. and when he applied for U.S. citizenship in the 1950’s. Trifa is accused of leading an Iron Guard pogrom in Bucharest in January, 1941.
Reporting the stories that define our era. When history unfolds in real-time, the Jewish world turns to JTA. Your support ensures we can document the complexities of war and the resilience of Jewish communities with integrity.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
