He Spied for the U.S. Against al Qaeda. ICE Now Wants Him Deported

The Trump administration is seeking to deport a self-described CIA informant who says he infiltrated al Qaeda after the September 11 attacks and helped U.S. authorities convict several terrorists.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Blerim Skoro, 55, a Kosovo-born father of three, on August 3 outside a New Jersey immigration office where he was renewing his paperwork. His wife, Susan Skoro, said officers surrounded him at the front desk, took him into a room, then drove him away.

Skoro's lawyers have filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court to halt his deportation, arguing he was promised U.S. residency in exchange for years of work as what his petition calls a "United States law enforcement agent" for the CIA, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration.

A federal judge granted Skoro a deferral of removal in 2022, citing the risk he would be captured and tortured by terrorists if sent back to Kosovo. His attorneys say that ruling was based partly on his role in helping secure the arrests of members of al Qaeda, al Shabaab and Hezbollah.

Skoro's ties to U.S. intelligence began after he was jailed for drug trafficking in 2000. FBI records list him as a confidential informant who provided intelligence from federal prison between 2002 and 2006 on figures including members of the Lackawanna Six and the Virginia jihad network. He says he was deported to Kosovo in 2007 and later worked undercover inside al Qaeda from 2007 to 2009, traveling through Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Pakistan and Egypt.

He says he helped lead to the 2009 arrest of Brooklyn man Betim Kaziu, who was later sentenced to 27 years for trying to buy weapons for al Shabaab. Skoro shared emails he says were from a CIA handler referencing Kaziu's arrest.

Skoro says his cover was later blown and he was shot in the leg in an assassination attempt in Kosovo, prompting him to reenter the U.S. illegally via Canada in 2014. He was taken into ICE custody in 2016 after an unrelated NYPD arrest, beginning a long immigration fight.

"I never thought they were going to betray me like this," Skoro told CBS News from the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey. "Please, if I die, I should die in this country so my kids can bury me."

His attorney, Joshua Dratel, said Skoro has led a "completely law-abiding, productive life" since returning to the U.S. The CIA did not respond to a request for comment.