A Dutch Boogaloo Boi who had been living illegally in the United States for more than six years told a judge that he should be released on bail on charges of illegally possessing a firearm because he wants to return to Virginia to be a “good dad” for his daughter, the Daily Beast reports.
Twenty-six year old Jaan Willem Lijbers came to the United States in 2014 on a 90-day tourist visa and never left. He then became involved with the Boogaloo Bois, an anarchist far-right group seeking to topple the US government and start a second Civil War.
Lijbers was part of numerous Boogaloo Boi groups on social media and was in direct contact with Benjamin Ryan Teeter, a Boogaloo Boi who was arrested for providing material support to Hamas, and Ivan Harrison Hunter, another domestic terrorist who used an AK-47 to shoot up a Minneapolis Police precinct during summer BLM protests.
Lijbers was arrested for possession a Radical Firearms RF-15 military-style rifle and five magazines, one of which was loaded into the weapon when FBI agents raided his home. Lijbers planned to attend the Minneapolis protests, but pulled out at the last minute. He instead attended a Virginia rally, where he boasted on social media that he was the only one there armed and that he had told police he was providing “security” for the event. He texted Hunter photo of himself holding a sign at the event saying “THE BIG IGLOO BOIS LAUGH IN THE FACE OF TYRANNY.”
According to his lawyer, Lijbers wants to return home to see his six-year-old daughter. Although he and the girl’s mother are no longer a couple, his lawyer says “He has the support of his child’s extended maternal family, who describe him as [an] excellent father to his child.”
Members of the Boogaloo Bois appeared at the bail hearing to give support to Lijbers. They’ve set up a fund to help him get money for the prison commissary.
All efforts to help Lijbers may be moot, however, given that he would be turned over to the Immigration and Custom Enforcement agency if he were released from federal jail. If convicted, Lijbers faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine, plus deportation back to the Netherlands.