Out of prison, Lost Boy from Boulder awaits deportation to war-torn South Sudan

Lucio Loboi (c) mugshots.com

One of the Lost Boys of Sudan, ^[1]who settled in Boulder, is in federal custody awaiting deportation following a series of criminal convictions, but his friends are concerned his life will be in danger if he's sent back to the war-torn region.

Lucio Loboi, 34, is in custody at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Aurora pending his deportation to South Sudan, said Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for the federal agency.

Rusnok said Loboi was convicted of or pleaded guilty to two felonies and two misdemeanors in Colorado and elsewhere between 2006 and 2013. The two felonies are both assault cases — one out of Boulder, the other Denver — and Loboi was sentenced to prison in both cases.

As a result of Loboi's convictions, ICE began formal removal proceedings on Feb. 13, 2013, and a judge ordered him removed from the U.S. on July 1, 2015.

Rusnok said that, generally speaking, criminal convictions are a basis for deportation.

"If he had committed crimes, those crimes could have rendered him deportable," Rusnok said Wednesday.

Linio Mario, a friend of Loboi's, said Loboi had just completed a probation sentence related to his most recent criminal case when he was asked to report to an ICE office in Firestone on Friday. Mario said that's when his friend was taken into custody.

Mario said he knew about Loboi's legal troubles, but argued Loboi's lack of resources meant he didn't have the means to fight the criminal charges the way he should have.

"It's not like Lucio did something bad," Mario said. "It was small incidents here and there."

According to ICE records, Loboi's Colorado convictions include felony counts of menacing and third-degree assault (knowingly/recklessly cause injury), for which he was sentenced to three years in prison, and second-degree assault (drugging victim), which netted him a two-year prison sentence.

He also was convicted of driving while ability impaired in another state.

Criminal records that would more fully detail the charges against Loboi in Boulder and Denver were not immediately available Wednesday.

Mario said he met Loboi at an orphanage in Kenya after both of men fled Sudan in the midst of the Second Sudanese Civil War^[2]. Records show Loboi legally entered the United States through New York City in 2000.

In 2009, Mario said, Loboi moved to Boulder, where Mario also lives. Boulder County is home to a number of the Lost Boys and Girls of Sudan,^[3] the refugees who fled Africa in the wake of that nation's civil war.

Mario said he's concerned not only with Loboi being deported, but also where he's being deported to. When the two fled Sudan, it was one country, but in 2011 the nation split into Sudan and South Sudan, where Mario said people from other tribes are in grave danger.

"Lucio will not last a week in South Sudan, they will kill him," Mario said. "It's a very horrible situation. It isn't fair to send someone to a country where he doesn't belong."

Loboi's friends approached the office of U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, about the matter this week, and Polis' staff confirmed it is aware of the case.

"Mr. Loboi appears to be a constituent of Congressman Polis's from Boulder," Polis' office said in a statement. "We were made aware of his case late (Tuesday) afternoon, and the congressman's staff is currently conducting a background evaluation of the matter."

Mario said Loboi believes he will be deported in about four days. Mario said he hopes ICE will consider sending his friend to Sudan rather than South Sudan — which is now undergoing its own civil war^[4] — or place him into the custody of the United Nations instead.

"They know there is trouble in South Sudan," Mario said of ICE. "It's not something people don't know. There are atrocities and war. It's very confusing, we don't know what is happening (with Loboi)."

Mitchell Byars: 303-473-1329, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or twitter.com/mitchellbyars^[5][6]

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