A registered sex offender from the US who went missing after entering Taiwan has been found and would be deported in light of the risk he poses to the public, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday.
The agency launched a search for Levi Forrest Wallace, 43, after it was informed by the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) that he had entered Taiwan on Oct. 2 on a tourist visa.
He was not on the US government’s wanted list.
Photo courtesy of the National Immigration Agency
Wallace was sentenced to 90 days in jail with a two-year probation in 2001 after he was convicted of sexual delinquency of a minor in Oregon, information from the AIT showed.
Wallace did not stay in a hotel in Taoyuan as stated on his card, the NIA said, adding that he was then placed on the agency’s closely watched list and would not be permitted to stay when found.
The agency subsequently alerted the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Labor and National Police Agency to watch out for Wallace and prevent him from finding a job or securing a permit to stay in Taiwan, the NIA said.
The education ministry also asked education departments across the country to report by today whether any cram school in their locality had hired Wallace.
Before finding Wallace, the NIA had said he would be deported from Taiwan and permanently banned from entering again pursuant to the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法).
The agency’s requests for a subpoena and permission to wiretap were both denied by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office, on the grounds that the agency had no right to do so, as Wallace had committed no crime in Taiwan and had no criminal motive or attempt.
The AIT did not respond to the NIA’s inquiry on whether Wallace could return to the US, the agency said.
The Taoyuan Police Department’s Dayuan Precinct located Wallace in an apartment on Taipei’s Minsheng E Road at about 5pm yesterday and detained him.
The Taipei MRT is open all night tonight following New Year’s Eve festivities, and is offering free rides from nearby Green Line stations. Taipei’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations kick off at Taipei City Hall Square tonight, with performances from the boy band Energy, the South Korean girl group Apink, and singers Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Faith Yang (楊乃文). Taipei 101’s annual New Year’s firework display follows at midnight, themed around Taiwan’s Premier12 baseball championship. Estimates say there will be about 200,000 people in attendance, which is more than usual as this year’s celebrations overlap with A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at Taipei Dome. There are
LOOKING FOR WHEELS: The military is seeking 8x8 single-chassis vehicles to test the new missile and potentially replace the nation’s existing launch vehicles, the source said Taiwan is developing a hypersonic missile based on the Ching Tien (擎天) supersonic cruise missile, and a Czech-made truck has been tentatively selected as its launch vehicle, a source said yesterday. The Ching Tien, formerly known as Yun Feng (雲峰, “Cloud Peak”), is a domestically developed missile with a range of 1,200km to 2,000km being deployed in casemate-type positions as of last month, an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The hypersonic missile to be derived from the Ching Tien would feature improved range and a mobile launch platform, while the latter would most likely be a 12x12 single chassis
UP AND DOWN: The route would include a 16.4km underground section from Zuoying to Fongshan and a 9.5km elevated part from Fongshan to Pingtung Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday confirmed a project to extend the high-speed rail (HSR) to Pingtung County through Kaohsiung. Cho made the announcement at a ceremony commemorating the completion of a dome at Kaohsiung Main Station. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications approved the HSR expansion in 2019 using a route that branches off a line from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營). The project was ultimately delayed due to a lack of support for the route. The Zuoying route would have trains stop at the Zuoying Station and return to a junction before traveling southward to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝).
Parts of the nation, including in the south, could experience temperatures as low as 7°C early tomorrow morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. A strong continental cold air mass coupled with the effect of radiative cooling would bring cold weather to several northern cities and counties, and could even affect areas as far south as Tainan early tomorrow, the CWA said. Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties would experience temperatures below 10°C until this evening, according to cold surge advisories issued by the weather agency. The weather across the nation is forecast to remain
RSS