Cleveland ? Returning an Ohio man accused of being a Nazi concentration camp guard to his native Ukraine would be like throwing him “into a shark tank,” his attorney argued in court Tuesday.

John Demjanjuk, an 85-year-old retired autoworker, has been fighting for nearly 30 years to stay in this country, and his attorney said he should not be deported to the Ukraine because he could face torture there.

But the Justice Department said Demjanjuk has not shown he would be mistreated.

Demjanjuk lost his U.S. citizenship after a judge ruled in 2002 that documents from World War II prove he was a Nazi guard at various camps. Tuesday’s hearing in front of an immigration judge was part of a process for determining whether he will be deported.

The U.S. first tried to deport Demjanjuk in 1977, accusing him of being a notorious guard known as Ivan the Terrible at the Treblinka concentration camp. Demjanjuk was extradited but the Israeli Supreme Court found that someone else apparently was Ivan.