Illegal Iraqi Citizen Arrested In Blythe

An Iraqi citizen in the United States illegally for nearly a decade was being processed today for deportation, according to the U.S. Border Patrol, which arrested the convicted murderer near Blythe.

Border Patrol agents who pulled over a 2007 Land Rover on Interstate 10 on Monday determined the driver was an illegal alien with a lengthy criminal record, according to Agent Shaun Kuzia.

The 39-year-old man, whose name was withheld, was convicted of murder in San Diego in January 1991. He was sentenced to 20 years in a California prison, but was released after eight years, Kuzia said.

“When he was released, he was ordered to be removed (from the country) by an immigration judge,” the agent said.

However, the man was never deported and remained in the United States. The “tumultuous situation in Iraq is most likely why he wasn’t physically removed from the country,” Kuzia said, adding there could have been a number of problems at that time with the immigration system.

Over the next several years the man was arrested several times, but escaped deportation, according to the Border Patrol.

In 2005, he was arrested in San Diego on a DUI charge.

“What likely happened there is the San Diego Police Department at that time, their records wouldn’t have shown any immigration records,” Kuzia said. “Our system wasn’t tied into theirs.”

The agent said the man was released and “continued his criminal ways.”

In February, he was charged with distribution of marijuana, conspiracy and money laundering in Arizona, where an immigration judge also ordered his deportation, according to Kuzia.

“Again he didn’t leave on his own. He didn’t go back to his country,” the agent said, adding that the man’s employment authorization to work in the U.S. had expired.

The man, who was born in Baghdad, first entered America at the age of 2 with his parents and likely grew up here, Kuzia said.

The man was being held at the Blythe Border Patrol station, where he was being processed for deportation back to Iraq, the agent said.

“The bottom line is this dangerous criminal is off the streets,” Kuzia said.