The Virginia man accused of illegally smuggling as many as 270 Somalis into the US is a free man today. Unbelievable! This is a story we first reported here. In addition to the shocking news that he got off with time served, it turns out he had been an agent of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and another unnamed US federal agency in Kenya (FBI? CIA? they aren’t saying). Are they protecting us or their agent?
Here is the Canadian Press story today. The feds couldn’t find any of the Somalis he supposedly brought to the US. Ho hum, so what else is new!
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — This much is known about Anthony Joseph Tracy: He told government agents he helped 270 Somalians illegally enter the United States through Cuba. He flunked a lie detector test when he denied helping members of the Somali terror group al-Shabaab. He was some sort of informant for the federal government going back at least as far as 2002.
And on Friday, the Winchester, Virginia, man was sentenced to roughly four months in jail, equal to time served, and walked out a free man.
The case against Tracy, who spent significant time in Kenya running an illicit travel agency, is shrouded in secrecy. His sentencing hearing Friday was held in open court, but lawyers and the judge talked around the specifics of what he actually did.
In fact, his guilty plea, apparently entered earlier this year, remains under seal. So the exact nature of Tracy’s misconduct remains unclear. [This is a fishy story–ed]
The few court records that are unsealed indicated that federal agents have been working feverishly for months trying to find the people that Tracy said he helped enter the U.S.
He picked up a Somali trait in his travels I see—a second wife. [Ha! A New York Times version of the story leaves out the second wife information, here.]
Tracy, who has a wife and five children in Winchester, also married a woman in an Islamic ceremony in Kenya, according to transcripts.
Be sure to read comments by Somalis Khadra and Abdi to this post about Tracy where they allege that illegal Somalis are tricking our authorities every day.