THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) has arrested an American pedophile wanted by federal authorities in the United States for molesting a child in California.

        Immigration commissioner Marcelino Libanan said he immediately ordered the deportation proceedings of the arrested American identified as J. Lee Barnard, 59, who is presently detained at the Bicutan immigration jail.

        Libanan said members of the BI law enforcement division arrested Barnard last Thursday inside the Typhoon Bar and Cocktail Lounge along Fields Avenue in Clark Field, Angeles City, Pampanga.

        He said Barnard will also be placed in the BI blacklist and banned from re-entering the Philippines after he is deported.

        “We cannot allow him to come back as his presence here poses a threat to the well-being of Filipino children who might be victimized by him,” the BI chief added.

        Records showed that Libanan ordered the American’s arrest at the request of the US embassy in Manila.

        The embassy said a warrant for Barnard’s arrest was issued by a superior court in California on May 14 last year, a month after he fled to the Philippines.

        Libanan said the American had been hiding and overstaying in the Philippines for more than a year and a half as he arrived in Manila in April last year.

        Barnard was charged before the said court with forcing a child under 14 years old to engage in several lewd and lascivious acts, the embassy added.

        dThe BI also reported that the pedophile is already an undocumented alien as his passport was canceled by the US government.