A Clark County resident who refused to give his name to Oregon police officers after allegedly harassing a Black family on a beach there was ordered to be removed from the U.S. 10 years ago.
An immigration judge ordered the removal of Oleg Saranchuk, 45, in June 2010 following a series of criminal convictions dating back eight years. However, since that time, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been unable to make the removal happen.
ICE stated in a press release that its attempts to obtain the needed travel documents for Saranchuk have been unsuccessful.
Saranchuk is originally from the USSR, having left Kazakhstan in 1990, according to ICE. He was formerly a lawful permanent resident alien.
The federal agency provided Saranchuk’s criminal history in its release, starting with a Nov. 2002 arrest by Clackamas County, Ore., Sheriff’s Office deputies for a weapons charge and possession of a stolen vehicle. He was later sentenced to probation in the case.
Saranchuk’s run-ins with law enforcement continued through the years: A February 2004 arrest in Ontario, Ore., which resulted in a conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm and forgery, followed by a handful of arrests in Portland over several years for probation violations and possessing guns.
ICE reported that Portland Police Bureau officers arrested Saranchuk on March 15, 2010, on local charges. That’s when ICE officers lodged an immigration detainer for him with the Multnomah County, Ore., Jail.
In May of that year, Saranchuk was convicted of two counts of first-degree burglary and sentenced to about three years in jail. He was transferred to the custody of ICE a day after his conviction, officials said.
In September 2010, nearly four months after Saranchuk was ordered removed to Russia, he was placed into ICE’s Alternative to Detention program due to “detention limits” and the inability to acquire his travel documents, according to ICE.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled nearly two decades ago that an alien with a final order of removal from the country generally should not be detained longer than six months. The detention program is a form of supervised release used by the federal agency on a case-by-case basis. Placement is based on criminal history, compliance history, immigration legal stage, community ties and other humanitarian concerns, the agency said.
Saranchuk has been reporting to an ICE office in Portland since his placement in the program, according to the press release.
But on Saturday, Saranchuk was arrested, along with six other Clark County men, in Lincoln City, Ore., for allegedly harassing a Black family on a beach, shooting off illegal fireworks and challenging responding police officers to a fight.
Saranchuk refused to give his name to officers and was booked into the Lincoln County Jail on suspicion of riot, interfering with police, second-degree disorderly conduct, harassment, possession of illegal fireworks and offensive littering.
The jail determined Saranchuk had been initially associated with another man booked and photographed by police — Andrey I. Leonchik, 41. The mix-up was attributed to “a language barrier and some lack of cooperation,” according to the Lincoln City Police Department.
The group had been described as “confrontational and highly intoxicated” in a press release issued early Sunday. None of the men remained in custody due to the jail’s COVID-19 policy limiting the offenses for which someone can be incarcerated before trial.
An ICE spokesperson said Russia has refused to provide Saranchuk with the necessary travel documents to allow him entry to his home country. The agency said it works to remove illegal aliens in a timely manner, once an order has been issued, as required by a presidential executive order.
The federal agency said it requests foreign countries to help out in the process, by confirming citizenship of the person to be removed, issuing travel documents and accepting the return of their nationals by commercial or special charter flights.
“Any lack of cooperation from the nation of origin delays, and in many cases, inhibits the removal process. Such uncooperative countries are also known as recalcitrant,” the agency said in its release.
