HOUSTON, TX- An illegal alien who avoided capture for 15 years despite having a final order of removal was arrested earlier this month in Houston, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced in a press release.
Dinh Quy Nguyen, 56, a criminal illegal alien from Vietnam, has prior convictions of attempted capital murder of a police officer and burglary, the release said. Up until President Trump’s first term, ICE was unable to repatriate Vietnamese citizens regardless of immigration status if they arrived in the United States before July 12, 1995.
Nguyen, who arrived in 1977, along with a number of other dangerous criminal aliens from Vietnam, were unable to be touched by immigration officials. Trump started to pick away at those limitations during his first term.
“When this violent criminal alien was released from prison in 2011, he was transferred into ICE custody, but at the time there was an agreement in place with Vietnam that prevented us from repatriating him and third country removals weren’t an option,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston acting Field Office Director Gabriel Martinez.
“As a result, we were forced to release him back into the community, where he remained for over 15 years, endangering everyone he encountered. Thanks to the commonsense policies established by this administration, we’re no longer prioritizing vicious criminal alien cop-killers over our brave men and women in uniform, and dangerous aliens like Nguyen can be quickly deported.”
Nguyen was initially admitted to the U.S. on Dec. 15, 1977, in Honolulu, Hawaii. On Oct. 26, 1988, he was convicted of attempted capital murder of a police officer, and on June 28, 1989, he was convicted of burglary, the release said. That decision was affirmed by the Board of Immigration Appeals on May 26, 1998.
On March 17, 2011, Nguyen was transferred from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice into ICE custody. On June 22, 2011, ICE was forced to release him under U.S. law that prevents the agency from holding aliens if there is no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future. He was arrested on May 5, and remains at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, pending removal to Vietnam.
ICE’s Houston field office is responsible for immigration enforcement in 56 counties in Southeast Texas, stretching down the Texas Gulf Coast from Beaumont to Corpus Christi and from Houston/Galveston out to Waco.
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