A man convicted of raping an immigrant who was on lifetime parole but exploited a legal loophole that allowed him to stay in the United States will now be deported to his home country, The Washington Post has learned.
Van Phu Bui fractured a Bronx man’s skull in a brutal surprise attack in 2022. Currently serving time for the heinous crime, Bui, 56, is scheduled to be deported to his native Vietnam upon his release from prison, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told The Washington Post this week.
Bui came to the United States via Seattle seeking asylum in 1985. Six years later, he was first arrested in New York on suspicion of attempted robbery, online court records show.
Additional details about the incident were not immediately available.
According to ICE, an immigration judge ordered Bui removed from the United States on Feb. 5, 1991.
But Bui 1990 Law It protects immigrants from deportation to countries hit by natural disasters or war.
There, Bui settled in Claremont, Bronx, where he raped a teenage girl at gunpoint on Christmas Eve, 1994. He was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to six to life in prison, of which he ultimately served 20 years.
However, authorities were unable to deport him in 2015. 2008 deals Exempts Vietnamese nationals who arrived in the United States before 1995 from repatriation.
“He should have been deported a long time ago,” an ICE source told The Washington Post on condition of anonymity.
Then in August 2022, Bui, who is now homeless, punched Jesus Cortez Cabrera without warning outside the Fuego Tipico restaurant in Fordham Manors. Cortez Cabrera, who teaches Mexican dancing to children, was hospitalized for three weeks with severe brain bleeding and a fractured skull.
The case made headlines after police charged Bui with attempted murder, but the Bronx District Attorney’s Office downgraded the charge to assault. Bui was convicted in May and sentenced to three-and-a-half to seven years in prison.
Authorities argued that thanks to a recent relaxation of a deportation agreement first put in place by the Trump administration in 2019, Bui will eventually be deported to his home country once his current sentence is completed.
“Upon completing his sentence, he will submit to deportation from the United States to Vietnam,” ICE said, adding that Bui has agreed not to resist deportation.
Cortez Cabrera said he was disappointed to learn of the decades-old deportation order against Bui.
“I hoped that if he had been deported first, he wouldn’t have had to hurt me,” Cortez Cabrera explained. “It should never have happened. It’s a miracle that I’m alive.”
Cortez-Cabrera said Bui should have received a longer sentence than he received.
“[If] “This guy is in prison for three years and then he’s going to be deported back to Vietnam. I hope he stays in a prison in Vietnam,” Cortez-Cabrera said. “He’s a really bad person and he’s going to do the same thing there. I don’t think he’s going to change.”
Bui’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.
