Many Americans see immigrants as a homogeneous mass of humanity; a group of people to be loved, welcomed, or looked at with jaundiced eyes. Though I see immigrant refugees differently, our American countrymen have the right to see immigrants in their own way. All the same, better would be an attempt to know a bit more about people who are legally here and live side-by-side with us.

Being one of them I see immigrants in distinct shades, all of them indescribably beautiful. Because I know the trials and tribulations that many refugees to America have endured and lived through, I admire most of them unreservedly. The result is, I view them with kindness and a sense of kinship. On many of their faces and in their eyes, I see reflections of scalding desert sands; the roar of marauding lions, and the whistle of bullets that missed their babies’ heads by an inch. They are grateful to America that removed them from places of certain death.

But admixed with this empathy for many, is my knowledge that running among them, are despicable men who have visited pain and grief to their countrymen. They remind us that, as much as a man is capable of great, merciful deeds, he is also able to cause great harm to humanity — to misquote Sartre: “hell is other people.”

A few weeks ago in a Colorado court, a Gambian man was indicted on federal charges for the 2006 torture of opponents of his employer — the dictator of Gambia. A US law allows American prosecution of non-citizens suspected of committing torture in other countries. According to Assistant Attorney General Brian Beczkowski, ”Michael Correa allegedly committed heinous acts of violence against victims in a brutal effort to coerce confessions.”

This man’s story reminds us that among crowds of refugees, walk foxes in sheep’s clothing; men who tortured and killed many of their countrymen, but somehow managed to cross many American immigration barriers. The Gambian, Michael Correa, came to the US as Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s bodyguard but overstayed his visa. He had lived in Denver working as a laborer since 2016.

Another African, this time an Ethiopian, managed to become a US citizen after lying about his past and stealing another man’s identity. He came to Colorado in 2004 but was not convicted of immigration fraud in federal court until 2013. Kefelegn Alemu Worku, was a notorious prison guard who tortured and killed political prisoners in Ethiopia. He was identified by people he tortured and his victims’ acquaintances.

Over and over again, men who torture others and whose evil deeds cause great harm to societies, are able to avoid apprehension. It seems so easy for them to change their appearances, to adopt new identities, becoming new men, often living high on the hog on the spoils of their malfeasance.

Perhaps the most famous escapees from justice were the former German Nazi officials who were able to get transportation to and residence in various South American countries. The story of Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death” of Auschwitz is well documented as were his escapades from Simon Wiesenthal’s Nazi hunters, West Germans and Israel. Adolf Eichmann, his compatriot and holocaust perpetrator, was captured and executed by Israel.

One can imagine that many Middle Eastern torturers escaped after the collapse of murderous regimes in Iraq, Syria and Libya. The identities of many of them may not have been well known, making it easy for them to travel to Europe or even America to claim refugee status.

Because the number of Gambians among us is small compared to our large Ethiopian population, it makes sense to talk more about Ethiopians’ clear, psychological terror. Many Ethiopians came to this country to escape a cruel regime which Kefelegn Wornu embodied. In fact, his following them here reignited their nightmares, thus torturing them once again.

By talking about these two killers, it’s my intention to remind all of us to be on the lookout for those among us who were yesterday’s victims, who suffer in silence and could use a hug. Or much worse, the whip and hammer wielders who come from every corner of the globe.

Legally legitimate refugees deserve peace and a life free of fear and constant backwards gaze. But as long as there are rulers who stay in power by force, there’ll always be enablers; men who hunt and suppress opposing voices; men who do bloody torture and murder of opposing voices.

Pius Kamau, M.D., a retired general surgeon, is president of the Aurora-based Africa America Higher Education Partnerships; co-founder of the Africa Enterprise Group and an activist for minority students ‘STEM education. He is a National Public Radio commentator, a Huffington Post blogger, a past columnist for Denver dailies and is featured on the podcast, “Never Again.”