Related: Czech Medal Returned
"Deported twice, but back in US again; Man’s case draws questions" by Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff February 02, 2015
It took federal immigration officials 37 years to deport Ivan Vaclavik to the former Czechoslovakia.
And it took only a few months for Vaclavik to come floating back. Twice.
The 67-year-old former Boston resident was deported to the Czech Republic in late 2013 after the Globe detailed how he had dodged deportation while racking up more than 100 criminal charges, but by July, Vaclavik was sneaking back into America on a raft across the Rio Grande. He was caught, slapped with a misdemeanor, and deported. Then last month, he was at it again, picked up by the Coast Guard on a powerboat sinking off Florida.
Now Vaclavik’s dogged efforts to return are raising new questions about the mysterious emigre and why federal officials didn’t charge him with a tougher crime when they caught him last year.
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Vaclavik first arrived in the United States in 1974, a seemingly erudite man in his 20s who told people he was an architect, though he was never licensed here. He stayed illegally, rented cheap rooms in Boston, and drove an Audi. How he paid the bills is a mystery because he appeared to have no job. It is unclear whether he has any relatives.
He was ordered deported in 1976 but never left, despite his long record. Much of his record consists of lesser offenses, such as shoplifting and breaking and entering. But he also served time in jail. He attacked a stranger at the Starbucks on Beacon Hill in 2005, broke into the Charles Hotel in 2007, and accosted an 11-year-old girl near a hotel pool in Waltham in 2009.
Immigration officials tried for years to get Czech officials to issue him a passport so that he could be deported but had to release him repeatedly in the United States. The Supreme Court has ruled that immigration officials cannot jail immigrants indefinitely if they cannot be deported.
After a Globe story in 2013, Czech officials issued Vaclavik a passport and ICE deported him later that year.
On July 3, during last summer’s border crisis, the Border Patrol caught Vaclavik near the city of Mission, Texas. They charged him in federal court with entering the United States illegally, a misdemeanor. Days later, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to about four months in prison, less than the national average of 10 months for that crime, according to the Justice Department. He also had to pay a $10 fee.
Because Vaclavik had already been deported, officials could have charged him with the much stiffer felony he faces now in US District Court in West Palm Beach.
Border officials said they did not know why Texas agents did not charge him with the felony in July.
“I cannot second-guess why the supervisor or the station manager chose to charge him with that at that time,” said Oscar Saldaña, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman.
Others said the lighter sentence encourages Vaclavik and others to try again.
“Everybody reentering after deportation should be charged with a felony,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.
Vaclavik was deported Dec. 8.
Weeks later, the Coast Guard in Florida received an emergency call from the Granny B., an 18-foot blue-and-white powerboat taking on water. Then, someone on board fired flares into the air about 8 miles east of Lake Worth.
Rescuers dispatched a helicopter, a boat, and a high-speed cutter to find them.
On board were Vaclavik, Noel, and two Brazilian nationals identified in court records only as J.S. and M.S.
“They claimed they were island-hopping in the Bahamas and they got stranded,” said Petty Officer Mark Barney of the Coast Guard, which turned the case over to immigration and border agents.
The Brazilians said they had paid a total of $14,000 to get smuggled into the United States through the Bahamas, according to federal court records. They said they met Vaclavik at a hotel in the Bahamas, and the three boarded the boat with Noel, a Bahamian deported in 2013 after serving time for possession of marijuana and cocaine. He had also been convicted in the 1990s of manslaughter in Florida....
The Globe left messages for Vaclavik at the immigration detention center, where he was jailed before last week’s criminal charges, and with his prior attorney in Texas, but they did not respond.
Vaclavik is being held at the Palm Beach County jail, awaiting medical clearance to appear in federal court in West Palm Beach, according to the US attorney’s office.
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"To resolve cases, thousands of immigrants could wait 4 years" by Seth Robbins, Associated Press February 02, 2015
SAN ANTONIO — Thousands of immigrants seeking legalization through the US court system have had their hearings canceled and are being told by the government that it may be 2019 or later before their futures are resolved.
Some immigration lawyers fear the delay will leave their clients at risk of deportation as evidence becomes dated, witnesses disappear, sponsoring relatives die, and dependent children become adults.
The increase in cancellations began last summer after the Justice Department prioritized the tens of thousands of Central American migrants crossing the US-Mexico border, most of them mothers with children and unaccompanied minors.
Immigration lawyers in cities that absorbed a large share of those cases, including New York, San Antonio, and Denver, say they’ve had hearings canceled with little notice and received no new court dates. Work permits, green cards, asylum claims, and family reunifications hang in the balance.
Immigration lawyer David Simmons said he’s never seen such a standstill in nearly 30 years of practice....
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