A criminal illegal immigrant sex offender who worked as a college professor in the U.S. is in custody thanks to the continued efforts on the part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to track down and remove criminal threats from America. ICE said in a statement that on Nov. 12 it arrested Sri Lankan national Sumith Gunasekera in Detroit, Michigan. Gunasekera reportedly worked as a professor of data science and analytics at Ferris State University, a public school in Big Rapids, Michigan.
🚨 BREAKING: ICE agents arrested an illegal alien who was working as an associate professor at Ferris State University in Michigan, @DailyCaller reports.
Sumith Gunasekera, a Sri Lankan national, was also previously arrested for multiple sex crimes, ICE told The Daily Caller. pic.twitter.com/cdgohCFhCG
— Off The Press (@OffThePress1) November 25, 2025
A scan of his online footprint reveals on social media site LinkedIn that he had been employed by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) as a professor of data and analytics. While at UTC he earned the prestigious designation of “Google Scholar.” If you check out those sites and see photos of Gunasekera, you’ll notice that the pictures he selected are not the norm for a nerdy college professor who spends all his time with numbers, data, and algorithms.
According to ICE, Gunasekera has a criminal history that includes “sexual interference with a minor, gross lewdness, uttering death threats, invitation to sexual touching, and disorderly conduct.” He remains in ICE custody pending further immigration proceedings.
Gunasekera’s rap sheet includes a conviction on Jan. 16, 2004, when the Las Vegas Justice Court convicted him of disorderly conduct and sentenced him to fines. On Sept. 25, 2003, the Metropolitan Police Department in Las Vegas arrested Gunasekera for open and gross lewdness. On Nov. 12, 1998, a criminal court in Brampton, Ontario, convicted Gunasekera for “utter threat to cause death or bodily harm and sexual interference” and sentenced him to 1 month behind bars and one year’s probation.
Less than three months earlier, on Aug. 28, 1998, the Peel Regional Police in Brampton, Ontario arrested Gunasekera for uttering death threats. They arrested him again just three days later for “invitation to sexual touching and sexual interference.” ICE said that Gunasekera admitted to officers that this charge was related to a minor.
“It’s sickening that a sex offender was working as a professor on an American college campus and was given access to vulnerable students to potentially victimize them,” said Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Tricia McLaughlin.
ICE said Gunasekera entered the U.S. in February 1998. He then left for Canada and returned later that year on a student visa. The federal government only learned that Gunasekera was convicted of crimes in Canada when he applied for a change of status with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in 2012.
Here’s video of him from seven years ago on YouTube giving a lecture at UTC.
For the past 27 years, an illegal immigrant with a checkered past was able to game the system between Canada and the U.S., and this appears to be the first attempt to seek actual justice and perhaps deportation.
No matter what day it is, you can count on the left to try to gaslight you and everyone else into thinking what’s real isn’t, and what isn’t real is. PJ Media’s VIP membership gives you the best way to see through all of it, and we will give you some great arguments if you find yourself in a friendly debate with your leftist brother-in-law. Join the fight! Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.
