Hollywood actor Randy Quaid and wife arrested trying to enter the USA

Five years after a self-imposed exile in Canada, Independence Day actor Randy Quaid has been arrested along with his wife Evi and placed in custody as they were trying to cross the border from Quebec into the US state of Vermont. The Quaids had fled to Canada in 2010 after they were accused of doing more than $5,000 worth of damage to a property they owned in Santa Barbara.

US Customs and Border Protection agents detained the Quaids at the Vermont port of entry at about 8pm on Friday, 9 October. They were taken into custody by state troopers, and a judge set bail at $500,000 each. Randy is being held at the North West State Correctional Center and his wife at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in the locality. They are both expected to be arraigned in Vermont on Monday.

Their arrests have followed accusations from the pair that "Hollywood killers" are out to get them and wish them harm as a reason to claim asylum in Canada. They have described their potential assailants as accountants, lawyers and "embezzlers". The couple have also accused the unnamed parties as being responsible for the death of Dark Knight actor Heath Ledger, who appeared with Randy in the Academy Award-winning film Brokeback Mountain.

Ledger died in New York in 2008 from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs thought to be OxyContin or "hillbilly heroin". He was working on the Terry Gilliam film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus at the time.

The couple had been granted permission to stay in Canada in 2011 and Evi was then granted Canadian citizenship because her father was born in Canada. However, Randy's request for permanent residency was refused in 2013. According to reports, he was expected to be deported to the US this Wednesday (14 October).

Quaid has also appeared in films including Kingpin, The Last Picture Show and The Last Detail for which he received an Oscar nomination. He is the older brother of actor Dennis Quaid.