U.S. twice tried to deport man killed by police in California Lightning rod for critics
U.S. authorities twice tried to deport a black man who was fatally shot by police in a San Diego suburb this week but his native Uganda refused to take him.
Then last year, he stopped reporting to immigration authorities as required under terms of his freedom and it’s unclear whether the government made any attempt to find him.
An explanation for why Alfred Olango remained in the country lies in a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that generally prohibits the detention of foreign nationals for more than six months if deportation is unlikely.
The nation’s highest court said in the 5-4 decision that holding people indefinitely only because no country will take them violates the constitutional right to due process.
Some of the thousands of immigrants who have been released after being ordered deported went on to commit crimes, making the Zadvydas vs. Davis decision a lightning rod for critics who say it illustrates a broken system.
Olango, who arrived in the United States as a refugee in 1991, was among those who committed crimes.
He was ordered deported by an immigration judge in 2002 following his conviction for transporting and selling narcotics, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said on Thursday. However, Uganda wouldn’t take him back after multiple requests, leading to his release in 2003 under an order of supervision.
Olango later was convicted on a weapons charge in Colorado, sentenced to nearly four years in prison and ordered to be deported in 2009 after his release.
Uganda again refused to issue travel documents allowing him to return.
Olango was told to check in monthly with immigration authorities and did so until February 2015. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice was unaware of any efforts to find him.