MEMPHIS, Tenn. — ICE arrested Kelvin Mejia-Romero, a criminal illegal alien from Honduras, upon his release from the Northwest Correctional Complex near Memphis after he completed a six-year sentence for vehicular homicide in a drunk-driving crash that killed 66-year-old Nashville musician Samuel Dismuke Sr. on New Year’s Day 2022.
Mejia-Romero was traveling east in the westbound lanes of Interstate 24 in Nashville around 2:45 a.m. when he crashed head-on into Dismuke’s pickup truck, according to local law enforcement. Mejia-Romero told authorities he had consumed eight or nine beers before driving and showed signs of impairment. Dismuke died at the scene; his family told local media the longtime musician was on his way home after playing with his band.
“It was my father this time, but it very well could be next time you injure somebody from your own family, you never know,” the victim’s son said. “He had two convictions, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the only two times he has done it. That’s just the only two times he got caught, that’s how I look at it.”
Records show Mejia-Romero entered the United States in 2014 with an approved travel authorization. He applied for several U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services authorizations in 2017 and 2018, all of which USCIS denied. He remained in the country unlawfully. His criminal record included prior DUI convictions before the fatal crash. “We’re taking these public safety threats off the streets and out of jails every day,” said acting ERO New Orleans Field Office Director Brian Acuna. “ICE will hold those who victimize our community accountable by enforcing our nation’s immigration laws.” Mejia-Romero will remain in ICE custody pending removal to Honduras.
Separately, ICE arrested Dinh Quy Nguyen, a 56-year-old criminal illegal alien from Vietnam, in Houston. Nguyen had remained free in the local community for over 15 years despite a final order of removal and prior convictions for attempted capital murder of a police officer and burglary. Nguyen was admitted into the United States in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was convicted of attempted capital murder of a police officer and later convicted of burglary. An immigration judge ordered him deported, and the Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed that decision.
Previously, ICE was unable to repatriate Vietnamese citizens who arrived in the U.S. prior to July 12, 1995, regardless of their immigration status or criminal history. Nguyen, who arrived in 1977, fell under that restriction. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice transferred Nguyen into ICE custody in 2011, but ICE was forced to release him under U.S. law that prevents the agency from holding aliens when there is no significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future.
“When this violent criminal alien was released from prison in 2011, he was transferred into ICE custody, but at the time there was an agreement in place with Vietnam that prevented us from repatriating him and third country removals weren’t an option,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston acting Field Office Director Gabriel Martinez. “As a result, we were forced to release him back into the community, where he remained for over 15 years, endangering everyone he encountered. Thanks to the commonsense policies established by this administration, we’re no longer prioritizing vicious criminal alien cop-killers over our brave men and women in uniform, and dangerous aliens like Nguyen can be quickly deported.”
Nguyen is being held at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, pending his removal to Vietnam.