Overview
- An immigration judge stayed Vedam’s removal until the Board of Immigration Appeals decides whether to review his case, a process that could take months.
- A U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania also issued a stay the same day, though that case may pause in light of the immigration court ruling.
- Vedam, 64, was released from state prison on October 3 and was immediately taken into immigration custody; he is now held at a short-term facility in Alexandria, Louisiana.
- ICE is seeking to deport him based on a decades-old no-contest plea to LSD delivery, and a DHS spokesperson said the vacated murder conviction does not affect that drug conviction’s immigration consequences.
- His lawyers and family urge reopening of his case, citing his lifelong U.S. ties as a legal permanent resident brought here as an infant and a citizenship application accepted before his 1982 arrest.