Before Plea, Refugee Made New Haven Home

A 33-year-old New Havener and Iraqi refugee named Mohamed Najm Kamash admitted this week to lying about his brothers’ affiliation with a terrorist group during his application for U.S. citizenship, and now faces up to five years in prison for the offense.

Kamash himself had no terrorism involvement — and in fact, court records reveal, he had become a volunteer interpreter and mentor for new arrivals, a ​“responsible, reliable, friendly” city resident who put down a decade of roots in New Haven’s refugee community.

Kamash pleaded guilty before a federal judge in Hartford on Monday to making a false statement in a naturalization proceeding, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced in a press release on Tuesday.

The case dates back to the spring of 2022, when federal prosecutors first charged Kamash — a ​“lawful permanent resident” of the U.S. who immigrated from Iraq in 2014 and obtained his green card in 2016 — with making false statements as he sought to attain U.S. citizenship.

Kamash’s guilty plea means that he could face a maximum of five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. A date for his sentencing hearing has not yet been set. 

A close look at the court records in his case show more than just government accusations of dishonesty about whether or not Kamash knew his brothers were members of the terrorist group ISIS. 

They also contain letters of support written by friends and by staff at the New Haven-based refugee relocation agency, Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS), testifying to Kamash’s character and community involvement in his adopted home city.

Those letters don’t seek to refute the criminal allegation made by the federal government that Kamash made false statements about some of his family members’ terrorist affiliations as he sought U.S. citizenship between 2019 and 2021. 

Instead, they make the case that Kamash has shown himself to be an upstanding New Havener since arriving in this city in 2014, that he wanted to find a way to bring his wife and young son to America, and that, as an adult, he had already proven his commitment to this country after passing through the U.S.‘s rigorous refugee screening process. 

“Mohamed has always worked hard to support himself,” then-IRIS Director Chris George wrote in one such court-filed letter in May 2022. ​“He has worked hard toward his goals of getting a GED, going to college, and becoming a businessman. He has shown himself in every way to be a generous, community-minded, kind, law-abiding, and upstanding member of the New Haven community.”

Kamash could not be reached for comment by the publication time of this article.

"False Statement" Charged. Plea Deal Struck

An April 2022 affidavit and criminal complaint signed by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent Stephen Ryczer lays out the details of the government’s allegations against Kamash that resulted in his guilty plea this week.

According to that initial court document, in April 2019, Kamash submitted an application for naturalization, also known as a Form N‑400, to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency. 

In Part 12 of that form, Kamash checked the ​“No” box next to the question, ​“Have you EVER been a member of, or in any way associated (either directly or indirectly) with: A terrorist organization?”

Then, during a USCIS interview in Hartford in August 2021 about his pending naturalization application, Kamash, ​“in substance,” said that ​“he has never known anyone involved with a terrorist organization, that no member of his family was involved with a terrorist organization, and that neither he nor his family were ever involved with any insurgency groups.”

That just wasn’t true, according to Ryczer. 

The FBI agent’s affidavit states that two of Kamash’s brothers ​“are believed to be (or have been) members of a terror organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).”

Ryczer then goes on to show that one of Kamash’s brothers, Ahmed, wrote via Facebook to Kamash in 2014 that he had joined the ISIS terrorist group and that they had given him a gun. 

In May 2016, another one of Kamash’s brothers, Ali, reportedly told Kamash via Facebook that he was ​“taking the same path that Ahmed took.” Kamash replied ​“that he did not mind,” asked if their parents were OK with the decision, and urged his brother to stay close to home.

Ryczer then references a 2017 Facebook group thread that Kamash and his siblings used to share with one another photos of Ahmed after he died in April 2016. Some of those images appeared to be ​“tribute-type photographs of then-deceased Ahmed training as a fighter for the ISIS terrorist group,” Ryczer wrote.

“Information concerning an applicant’s membership in, or association with, a terrorist organization implicates national security issues,” the FBI agent concluded as he argued for charges to be brought against Kamash for making false statements during the naturalization process. 

“Such information is important in determining the applicant’s eligibility in terms of good moral character and attachment requirements. … The burden rests on the applicant to prove that he or she has an attachment to the Constitution of the United States and that he or she is well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States, among the other naturalization requirements.”

A plea agreement signed by Kamash, federal public defender Kelly Barrett, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Doherty on Monday indicates his admission of guilt to a one-count indictment charging him with making a false statement in a naturalization proceeding. 

That plea deal shows federal prosecutors committing to recommending that the court impose a prison sentence between 0 to 6 months and a fine of between $500 and $9,500, given Kamash’s lack of a prior criminal record. In exchange, Kamash admitted that he ​“made a false statement” during a naturalization proceeding and that he ​“knew the statement was false when made.”

Court Records Reveal Refugee Community Roots

What the initial charges and subsequent plea deal don’t show is how Kamash has spent his life in New Haven since arriving as a refugee from Iraq in 2014.

Details about those parts of his life emerge in the letters of support written by friends and local refugee-relocation nonprofit staffers in various motions for release on bond after Kamash’s arrest in 2022.

Kamash ​“began establishing deep community ties upon his arrival to Connecticut as a refugee in 2014,” his public defender wrote in one such motion, ​“and has powerful incentives to remain here to see this case to completion.”

In an attached letter from May 2022, Chris George, who then had not yet retired from his nearly two-decade-long stint as the executive director of the state’s largest refugee resettlement agency, wrote glowingly about Kamash.

He said Kamash came to the U.S. in July 2014 as a refugee from Iraq. He went through IRIS’s ​“cultural orientation” sessions in his first two months, joined the IRIS Cultural Companion program, and met regularly with a Yale undergrad volunteer to practice English and ​“explore New Haven together.”

Kamash then became a member of IRIS’s ​“young adult leadership group” and its soccer club; he served as a volunteer interpreter, and helped newcomer Syrian and Iraqi young adults and their IRIS case managers look for apartments and learn their way around New Haven. ​“In every IRIS group, he was a friend to everyone, introducing himself to newcomers, helping them connect to others, and offering them guidance and advice.”

In a second motion for release on bond submitted in June 2022, Kamash’s public defender noted that eight co-signors — including family members, friends, and IRIS employees — had come forward to sign a $200,000 bond that would allow Kamash to be released from custody as his federal case continued.

That motion included several more letters of support.

In one such letter, then-IRIS Project Coordinator Leslie Koons wrote about getting to know Kamash well back in 2014 when she worked as the agency’s health and wellness coordinator. She wrote about his attending cultural orientation classes and his learning to navigate ​“our complex and confusing medical system.” She wrote about his participation in an IRIS-hosted series of soccer games around the time of the 2014 World Cup, about his sportsmanship and talents as a soccer player and graciousness in inviting her and her daughter and other IRIS clients over for lunch for ​“a delicious Iraqi feast for all.” 

And she wrote about him becoming proficient enough in English to serve as a volunteer interpreter for IRIS. ​“This was a great service to the health & wellness department as we had no budget for an interpreter but had a high need for interpreters to meet growing numbers of incoming Arabic-speaking clients. Having Mohamed available to interpret by phone, text, or in-person was very beneficial to us. All the work he did for me and my interns was done as a volunteer and always with a friendly smile.” She concluded her letter with the quote referenced at the top of this article, describing Kamash as responsible and friendly and ​“ready and willing to be of service to others.”

Other letters of support written and filed in the federal court record in this case came from IRIS Health and Wellness Manager Pema Bhutia, IRIS Employment Services Manager Aniko Szabo, a friend of Kamash’s named Abdul, and, for a second time, from then-IRIS Executive Director Chris George.

George wrote in this second letter of his, from June 2022, that Kamash came to the U.S. in 2014 from Turkey, where ​“he had been taking refuge after fleeing his home country of Iraq. After a long and thorough screening process, Mr. Kamash was invited by the Department of State to resettle in the US.”

The federal government’s screening process for refugees is ​“the most rigorous in the world,” George continued. It typically includes interviews by United Nations staff and officials from the U.S. Department of State, followed by a security vetting process by the federal Department of Homeland Security.

“Refugees typically undergo several long interviews, many months apart,” George wrote. ​“The interviews are detailed, deeply personal and often re-traumatize refugees. In many cases, it takes two years or more to get through the security vetting process. The Department of Homeland Security does not take chances. If a story doesn’t make sense or if information is false, the individual is off the list. If a phone number matches a phone number of a known terrorist, the individual is off the list, or delayed until the issue is investigated.

“In Turkey, Mohamed Kamash was an adult when he was considered for resettlement in the US, so he was treated as a separate case; separate from his family. This is not uncommon in refugee processing.”

In a comment provided to the Independent for this article, IRIS’s new executive director, Maggie Mitchell Salem, stood by the agency’s letters of support for Kamash over the course of this federal case. 

“Like the refugee vetting process, the naturalization process is extremely thorough and includes an assessment of family members, even if those family members do not seek entry to the US and have not lived in the same country for many years,” she wrote in an emailed comment. ​“Our staff shared certain facts about Mr. Kamash’s participation in IRIS programs with the court as it considered whether to release him on bond. We stand by the information shared by our staff as accurate and truthful.”