Earlier this afternoon, the Los Angeles Times’ Nathan Fenno (who has done an admirable job covering this case since last October) broke the news that Slava Voynov has moved on from the Seal Beach Police Detention Center to an “unspecified detention facility.” He is now under the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
After Voynov’s release in Seal Beach, ICE took him into custody and is holding the Russian citizen at an unspecified detention facility pending a hearing by an immigration judge, an agency spokeswoman said Thursday.
Because of the violent nature of Voynov’s legal entanglement — which brought him to the attention of ICE in the first place — the agency didn’t set a bond.
The Kings declined comment while Voynov’s agent didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Just as a reminder what led up to this: Voynov’s “no contest” plea in early July resulted in a three-month jail sentence, along with three years of probation. We outlined the possible scenarios in the wake of that sentence, the first of which included the potential of deportation. Here’s what Lamia wrote two months ago:
If Voynov is indeed deported by the immigration court, then he will obviously no longer be able to play in the NHL. Thus, it is likely that his contract would be terminated. Immigration laws regarding deportation are murky at best, but there is history for Voynov’s specific crime being a “crime of moral turpitude” that resulted in the deportation of an immigrant. However, there are many circumstances in which Voynov could avoid deportation, and I am not a lawyer, so I will not speculate any further on this subject. It’s a possibility.
Of course, it’s possible that there could be travel restrictions or other consequences without deportation, and the eventual outcome remains extremely murky. So this newest development doesn’t change a whole lot. Initially, no one was sure if and when Voynov would appear before the ICE; now we just know that it’ll probably happen, and it’ll probably begin happening soon.
There’s no firm timetable on when Voynov’s immigration hearing might play out, but as you might guess, this is NOT a short process.
— Rich Hammond (@Rich_Hammond) September 3, 2015
As with the no contest plea, none of this has any bearing on Voynov’s indefinite suspension.