The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions about DePape’s entry to the United States after he violated immigration law. It acknowledged in a statement that DePape was allowed into San Diego from Tijuana on March 8, 2008, but didn’t address any other entries.

San Francisco police said DePape confronted Paul Pelosi in the family’s Pacific Heights home October 28 and demanded to know where the House Speaker was. DePape pleaded not guilty to state charges on Tuesday and was ordered held without bail. His public defender, Adam Lipson, said he looks forward to providing him with a “vigorous legal defence”.

DePape faces state charges of attempted murder, burglary and elder abuse. He also faces federal charges including attempted kidnapping of a US official. His state case will continue Friday, though the defendant will not appear in the courtroom. An arraignment on federal charges has not been scheduled.

In the state court filing, prosecutors detailed the attack in stark terms, saying Paul Pelosi, 82, was knocked unconscious by the hammer attack and woke up in a pool of his own blood.

DePape grew up in Powell River, British Columbia, but relocated to California to be with a girlfriend, stepfather Gene DePape told The Associated Press last week. He has three children with two women, he said. Gene DePape said the suspect had lived with him in Canada until he was 14 and had been a quiet boy.

DePape’s ex-girlfriend, Bay Area nudist activist Oxane “Gypsy” Taub, told the San Francisco Chronicle she met DePape in Hawaii in 2000. The pair lived in Berkeley and had two children during their 15-year relationship.

US officials have long struggled to quantify — let alone track down — people who enter the country legally and overstay visas, believed to be about 40 per cent of the population who are in the country illegally.

The cost and technological hurdles to develop a checkout system at congested land crossings with Canada and Mexico are enormous. In the 12-month period through September 2020, more than 52,000 Canadians who came to the US by air or sea had overstayed their legally authorised entry.

Despite the challenges, the US official said DePape’s overstay should have been noted in immigration records, which, in theory, should have prevented authorities from admitting him.

AP

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