Zaia smuggled Iraqis into US for 3 years

WASHINGTON, A naturalized citizen has been charged as the head of a ring that smuggled 200 mainly Iraqi illegals into the United States since 2001.

And she could have been stripped of her citizenship and deported after an earlier conviction on similar charges more than 10 years earlier.

Iraqi-born Neeran Hakim Zaia was indicted in October last year along with her husband and three others following an undercover investigation spanning three continents that lasted more that three years and cost millions of dollars, according to officials familiar with the case.

The case stoked concern that human trafficking routes, including those across the porous southern border, are increasingly being used to smuggle so-called special interest aliens -- those from countries where al-Qaida or other Islamic terrorist organizations are thought to be active -- into the United States.

But officials point out the land border was not used by these smugglers and play down any terrorist connection. "This (conspiracy) was being driven by money not ideology," a federal official involved in the case told United Press International.

Last week at a district court in Washington, Zaia's husband, Thaer Omran Ismail Asaifi, also known as Abu Harp, pleaded guilty and faces between six and eight years in jail, after which he will be deported

But Zaia, who is currently contesting her competency to stand trial, still faces charges. As a citizen, she will be released if she is acquitted or after she has served her sentence.

Now, a review of court papers and other documents in the case by UPI reveals that Zaia could have faced charges of procuring citizenship unlawfully following an earlier conviction.

If stripped of her citizenship, she would have been deported following her sentence.

But the statute of limitations had elapsed on that offense before prosecutors in the new case got hold of the file, and they now face a lengthy and potentially costly prosecution to jail Zaia on the latest alien smuggling charges.

In December 1992, according to court papers and news accounts, Zaia was convicted by a federal court in the eastern district Michigan on seven counts of visa fraud, three counts of bribery and one charge of alien smuggling.

As part of the naturalization process, all would-be citizens complete a sworn declaration that they have not committed any undeclared criminal offences. Making a false declaration -- as Zaia, who underwent naturalization before her arrest, seems to have done -- is a crime, and is grounds for the revocation of citizenship.