Royce Decries Past INS Failure to Deport Suspect in Slaying

Hung “Henry” Thanh Mai, the immigrant accused of killing a California Highway Patrol officer, had not been deported to Vietnam for earlier crimes because it would have been “enormously difficult,” immigration officials said Thursday.

The explanation did not satisfy Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton). During a House immigration subcommittee hearing on immigrants convicted of felonies, Royce questioned why Mai was still in the United States.

Royce said he had a personal interest in the matter because the slaying occurred in his district.

“State correctional officials flagged Mai three times as a person who should be deported, but the INS overruled them,” Royce said. “Now we have a police officer who has been murdered.”

Mai had been convicted previously of forgery, escape, weapons violations, burglary and assault with a deadly weapon. He was paroled from state prison in 1993.

The 25-year-old Anaheim resident is being held at the Orange County Jail on murder charges in the death of CHP Officer Don Burt during a routine traffic stop in Fullerton in July.

David Martin, general counsel for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, told the House panel that it would have been “enormously difficult” to deport Mai for past convictions to his native country of Vietnam because the United States lacked the necessary diplomatic relations at the time.

Martin said that the recently passed anti-terrorism laws combined with increased INS funding would make future deportations of convicted immigrants much easier.