- Kosovo-born father of three says he worked undercover for U.S. intelligence against al Qaeda and other terror groups.
- ICE arrested Blerim Skoro while he was renewing his immigration documents in New Jersey.
- His lawyers are asking a federal court to stop his deportation, citing a previous ruling protecting him from removal to Kosovo.
A Kosovo-born man who says he spent years working undercover for U.S. intelligence against terrorist groups is facing deportation after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him during an immigration appointment in New Jersey.
Eko Hot Blog reports that Blerim Skoro, 55, was arrested on August 3 outside an immigration office in New Jersey while renewing his paperwork, according to a report by CBS News.
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Skoro, who lives in Staten Island, New York, is a father of three and is married to an American woman. His lawyers have filed a federal habeas corpus petition seeking to prevent the government from deporting him to Kosovo, arguing that his previous work for U.S. agencies and a 2022 court ruling should protect him from removal.
Skoro told reporters from the Elizabeth Detention Center that he felt betrayed by the government he claims to have served.
“I never thought they were going to betray me like this,” he said, adding that he feared being killed if returned to Kosovo.
Skoro’s relationship with U.S. authorities reportedly began after he was imprisoned for drug trafficking in 2000.
According to FBI documents cited by CBS, Skoro became a confidential informant while serving his sentence. He said his connections with Islamic radicals in prison attracted the attention of U.S. intelligence officials following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Between 2002 and 2006, while serving time at a federal prison in Pennsylvania, Skoro said he provided intelligence to the FBI about individuals connected to terrorism investigations.
Among those he claimed to have provided information on were members or associates of the Lackawanna Six, the Virginia jihad network and Hezbollah.
Heavily redacted FBI records from 2004 reportedly identify Skoro as an informant in an investigation linked to Osama bin Laden. The documents described some of the information he supplied as actionable and reliable.
After being deported to Kosovo in 2007, Skoro says he was instructed by the CIA to infiltrate terrorist networks in the Balkans.
He claims he worked undercover between 2007 and 2009, travelling through several countries, including Lebanon, Jordan, Pakistan and Egypt.
Skoro has also claimed that he travelled to Syria and infiltrated extremist networks. His photographs and videos from that period were later featured in a 2024 documentary titled The Accidental Spy
One of the operations he described involved Brooklyn-born terrorist Betim Kaziu, who was later sentenced to 27 years in prison after attempting to obtain weapons for al-Shabaab to attack U.S. troops abroad.
Skoro said he secretly contacted his CIA handler while Kaziu was staying at his apartment in Kosovo, helping authorities locate and arrest him in 2009.
He also claims he helped U.S. authorities intercept uranium shipments headed for Kosovo, potentially preventing a terrorist attack involving a so-called dirty bomb.
The CIA has not publicly confirmed Skoro’s account. It was said that the agency did not respond to its requests for comment.
Skoro returned to the United States in 2014 after claiming that his cover had been compromised and that he had survived an assassination attempt in Kosovo.
He was later detained by immigration authorities in 2016 following an NYPD arrest over his use of his daughter’s discounted public transportation card.
His immigration case continued for years.
In November 2022, a federal judge blocked the U.S. government from deporting Skoro to Kosovo under the Convention Against Torture, citing the risk that he could be tortured or killed there.
However, the ruling did not grant him permanent legal residency in the United States.
His lawyers now argue that ICE could not lawfully detain and move to deport him without first obtaining permission from the court.
In an amended petition filed on August 17, his legal team argued that immigration authorities had acted without proper notice or process despite his protection under the Convention Against Torture.
Federal District Judge Robert Kirsch has ordered the U.S. government to respond to the petition.
Skoro’s wife, Susan, was present when he was arrested at the immigration office. She said ICE officers took him into a room before transporting him away.
Susan said her husband had served the United States at great personal risk and should not now be sent to a country where his life could be in danger.
Bhairavi Desai, executive director of Skoro’s taxi union, also expressed surprise that his immigration status remained unresolved after his alleged intelligence work.
Skoro’s attorney, Joshua Dratel, described his client as a law-abiding family man who had spent the past decade building a productive life in the United States.
Skoro remains in immigration detention as his lawyers seek judicial intervention to prevent his deportation.
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