Enrique Orozco-Villegas

Following his arrest on a drunk driving charge last month, a Mexican citizen who’d been living in Cody was removed from the United States for a sixth time.

Cody police took 43-year-old Enrique Orozco-Villegas into custody early on Nov. 8, following a minor crash in the parking lot of Brewgard’s Liquor and Lounge.

However, before the DUI case could progress, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took Orozco into their custody and returned him to Mexico.

ICE has since accused Orozco of being among the “Worst of the Worst” individuals that the agency has arrested this year. On a newly launched website, the agency noted that Orozco has prior felony convictions for illegally reentering the U.S. and for identity theft, as he posed as an American citizen 15 years ago.

Old cases

Federal court records show that in 2010, Orozco used a Casper resident’s name, date of birth and Social Security number to land a job with an oilfield company in Riverton and to open a Wells Fargo checking account in the man’s name. Orozco was caught when he transferred too much money out of the Wells Fargo account, the records say, as the Casper resident received an unexpected overdraft notice and contacted police.

The bank transfer was ultimately traced to Dickinson, North Dakota, where Orozco had been doing oilfield work for the Riverton firm. Orozco admitted to investigators that he was not the American he’d claimed to be, reportedly explaining that he’d purchased the Casper man’s personal information for $500.

In federal proceedings across Wyoming and North Dakota, Orozco pleaded guilty to three felony counts in 2011: aggravated identity theft, false claim of U.S. citizenship and reentry of a deported alien. He received a 25-month prison sentence and was apparently then returned to Mexico.

However, he was back in Riverton by December 2020, when he was caught driving with a blood alcohol content more than twice the legal limit. Orozco pleaded guilty to a DUI in mid-2021, and ICE says he was again  1removed from the U.S. several months later. It was his fifth such removal, according to the agency.

New case

It’s unclear when or how Orozco made his way back to Wyoming, but Cody police contacted him outside of Brewgard’s shortly after midnight on Nov. 8.

An affidavit composed by police says Orozco was attempting to park near the bar’s entrance and pick up his wife when he backed into a Chevy Suburban. The collision caused one of the Suburban’s doors to shut, and it “smashed” a woman’s leg, Officer Garrett Rothleutner wrote. However, the officer also said the impact left no visible injuries and the woman declined medical treatment.

Beyond the backing violation, police say they found that Orozco’s license was suspended, he had no proof of valid auto insurance and appeared to be intoxicated. After taking him into custody, a formal breath test put Orozco’s blood alcohol content at 0.15%, or nearly twice the legal limit. If he had been convicted, court records indicate it would have been at least Orozco’s third DUI offense; an ICE spokesperson said he has five convictions.

Orozco pleaded not guilty to the new DUI charge and three other misdemeanors at a Nov. 10 appearance in Park County Circuit Court. A friend in Cody posted a $5,000 cash bond on his behalf, but he was never released from jail: ICE placed a detainer on Orozco and took him into their custody on Nov. 11.

The abrupt deportation apparently came as a surprise to the woman who posted Orozco’s bail.

“I did not know he got sent back to Mexico until another friend told me,” she wrote in a late November letter to the court. She asked for her $5,000 back, explaining that, “I was trying to help out a friend that was needing my help.”

The court has scheduled a Friday hearing on the requested refund.

Highlighted by ICE

Meanwhile, ICE has added Orozco to an online website highlighting the “Worst of the Worst” people arrested by the immigration agency this year. He’s among 15 individuals on the site listed as Wyoming arrestees and the sole arrestee from the Big Horn Basin.

In a Facebook post last week, state Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, encouraged people to visit the database and search for Wyoming arrests.

“You will see illegals with criminal records that were in YOUR town,” Rodriguez-Williams wrote, expressing thanks to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security “for keeping America safe!”

The “Worst of the Worst” database included nearly 9,875 individuals as of Monday, though that’s a fraction of the overall number of people arrested by ICE in President Donald Trump’s second term.

According to recent reporting by NBC News, ICE officers arrested roughly 220,000 people between January and September. The outlet reported that roughly a third of those people had no criminal histories.