Back in the U.S., and back in trouble
Back in the U.S., and back in trouble
By JAMES WALSH, Star Tribune
November 2, 2008
Federal officials have sent Jose Trinidad Sanchez-Azpeitia packing to his native Mexico three times since 2003. Yet the illegal immigrant keeps coming back and getting into trouble, including convictions for drug possession, damage to property and fleeing a police officer.
He has lots of company. In the past month in Minneapolis, federal officials indicted eight men in a growing effort to slow the revolving door of illegal immigrants who return to commit other crimes. They included:
•William Contreras-Lozano, twice deported and with a drug conviction.
• Angel Espinosa-Lozano, deported three times, convicted for selling cocaine.
• Fausto Cesar Alvarado-Sagastume, returned five times to his native Guatemala, convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl.
• Napoleon Borjas-Arias, deported four times to Honduras since 1992, convicted of drug possession and burglary.
• Miguel Campos-Cardoso, arrested Sept. 4 on suspicion of possessing drugs and driving while intoxicated. Police discovered he's been deported before.
All were indicted for unlawful reentry after deportation, a felony. Officials hope that lengthy prison sentences will keep the offenders from coming back when they're deported after their release.
"We have a much more aggressive criminal alien program than we've ever had," said Scott Benneke, director of Detention and Removal Operations for the Minnesota office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Since April, Banneke said, the U.S. attorney has moved to prosecute 23 illegal-return cases referred from his office. So far this year, ICE's criminal investigation division has referred another 10 cases for prosecution, ICE spokesman Tim Counts said.
"It's a fairly common problem," Counts said of illegal reentry. "But for people with criminal records, we're saying, 'Look, if you come back here with a criminal record, you're going to get nailed for it.'"
National crackdown
From November 2007 through June 2008, a crackdown on illegal immigrants with criminal records has resulted in more than 3,800 prosecutions for felony reentry -- 2,000 more cases than for all of fiscal 2007.
The crackdown initially focused on San Diego, El Paso, Houston and Phoenix. But, in June, the program was expanded to all of ICE's Detention and Removal offices nationwide, Counts said.
Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of ICE's criminal investigations in Minnesota, said the strategy is to target the worst offenders -- gang members, drug dealers -- with felony reentry prosecution and a prison sentence of up to 20 years. People who illegally return to the United States, but do not have other criminal convictions, are more likely to be deported but not imprisoned, he said.
The issue of people illegally in the country committing serious crime has gained greater attention locally. In August, ICE nabbed dozens of foreign-born gang members in a two-week sweep through the Twin Cities. A Richfield gang member charged Tuesday with murder in connection to a Minneapolis drive-by shooting is also under a hold from ICE.
Felony reentry charges may be another means to keep violent offenders out of the country, Arnold said.
"We are really looking to use this on specific individuals," he said. "There are a lot of factors that we consider in pursuing a reentry prosecution."
One reason for the emphasis, ICE officials said, is that illegal immigrants who return after deportation are more likely to commit new crimes than those who have not been deported.
To help deter that behavior, Benneke said, officials are turning to longer prison terms before deporting them again.
"That hammer is a lot larger," he said of a potential 20-year sentence.
One revolving-door case
Consider Alvarado-Sagastume. He was first deported to Guatemala in August 1988. But in April 1996, he was convicted in Maryland of criminal trespass and given 90 days in jail. In June 1996, he was convicted in Maryland of having sex with a 12-year-old girl and was later deported.
But in 1998, he was back. He was sentenced to 37 months for illegal reentry, and in December 2000, he was deported again. In May 2007, ICE officials in Minnesota arrested him and again deported him.
Yet in July, ICE learned that he had returned to Minnesota, was registered as a sex offender and was working at a restaurant in Austin.
While officials say they cannot comment on ongoing cases, Alvarad-Sagastume would seem to be the kind of offender officials want to lock up for a long time.
Malee Ketelsen, an immigration attorney who specializes in defending immigrants in deportation and removal cases, said she has seen an increasing emphasis on enforcement over the past several years and more people -- offenders and non-offenders -- being deported.
But she agreed that the felony reentry-after-deportation cases are being reserved for those with criminal records.
"In general, I am seeing this prioritization," said Ketelsen, who is also the ICE liaison for the Minnesota-Dakotas Association of Immigration Lawyers of America. "They are combing through the county jails for criminal aliens."
The goal, Arnold said, is simple: "We hope that the re-entry case is the one that eventually keeps them out."
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