Thread: Border security fails to keep man away

Border security fails to keep man away
Deported four times, Dominican man manages to keep returning to Del.
By SEAN O'SULLIVAN • The News Journal • June 30, 2008

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WILMINGTON -- Shortly after his 1999 conviction on drug-related charges in Delaware, Richard Diaz-Garcia was deported to his native Dominican Republic and told, essentially, never to return.


He was told that again in 2002.

And 2004.

And 2006.

And this month, like a bad summer rerun, he was back in court after having been arrested for shoplifting in New Castle County.

While repeated immigration violations may not be noteworthy in other parts of the country, officials here said it is unusual to have a defendant who has been caught and shipped home from Delaware so many times.

"This is the exception rather than the rule," said William Lowder, resident agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Delaware. "This guy put in some extraordinary effort to come back to Delaware."

Diaz-Garcia, 28, kept returning to Delaware because he has a girlfriend, who may now be his wife, and two children here, attorneys say.

This time, Diaz-Garcia feared for his family's well-being and came back after getting panicked calls from his wife, according to people familiar with the case.

Guillermina Gonzalez, executive director with the Latino advocacy group Voices Without Borders, said the situation sounded unusual to her as well. As a pattern, Gonzalez said, people like Diaz-Garcia usually end up returning multiple times to earn more money.

Jan Ting, a professor at Temple University School of Law, said the case is "all too common" and "shows how much still needs to be done to secure our borders against illegal and unauthorized entrants."

It is unclear how Diaz-Garcia has been able to get back into the country so often, but court records indicate he has been caught as a stowaway. One incident involved a vessel that apparently docked at the port in Elizabeth, N.J.

Ting, who unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in Delaware two years ago on a platform of reforming border security, said a typical route for Dominicans seeking to illegally enter the U.S. is to sneak into nearby Puerto Rico and board a plane.

Because Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, flights to the mainland are treated like domestic air travel, said Ting, and passports are not checked.

Incidents like this show "why we make illegal alien criminals serve out their sentences at taxpayer expense rather than simply deporting them: If we just deport them, they could be back on the street again next week after another illegal entry," Ting said.

In addition to the four official deportations, a criminal complaint states that "there were at least two other encounters, when he was a stowaway and was deported."

However, there are no dates for either of those deportations and attorneys involved questioned if the reference was accurate.

But whether this is the fifth or the seventh deportation, U.S. Attorney Colm F. Connolly said it concerns him.

"Yes, I'm troubled our borders are porous enough that folks like Diaz-Garcia can return after being deported multiple times," he said.

Connolly said when he took over the U.S. Attorney's office in 2001, he changed the prosecution guidelines at the urging of law enforcement to include cases against undocumented immigrants who repeatedly reoffend.

However, he added that prosecutors can only do so much. "The criminal justice system is the last resort. The front line attack against this problem needs to occur at the border," he said, adding the Bush administration and Congress have made border security a priority since 9/11.

'Removals' are on rise in area
Matthew Hirsch, an adjunct professor of immigration law at Widener University School of Law, agreed, saying that in the past seven years some of the most embarrassing problems have been fixed.

"The numbers [of those detained and deported] are way up," he said.

According to immigration officials, the number of people removed every year has more than doubled from 116,200 in 2001 to 282,500 in 2007.

In the region that includes Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the number of removals in two years has gone from 3,600 in 2005 to 5,400 in 2007, according to ICE spokesman Mike Gilhooly.

At the same time, Hirsch said Diaz-Garcia is an example of how, no matter how much money you throw at the problem, some people are always going to get through.

"Obviously, this fellow is very ambitious ... audacious and persistent," he said. "And when you have got this kind of persistence and willingness to take risks, it is hard to stop."

Hirsch noted the United States has waged a decades-long battle against drugs, spending billions on interdiction, "yet there are still plenty of drugs around."

Guilty plea for cocaine charge
According to court records, Diaz-Garcia first ran into trouble with Delaware authorities after he was taken into custody for felony possession of cocaine and resisting arrest in October 1998.

He pleaded guilty in March 1999 and was deported in February 2000.

He reappeared in October 2002, getting picked up by New Castle County Police for resisting arrest, according to court and police records. He was deported two months later.

He was deported again in May 2004. The records are unclear as to where and why he was apprehended.

Diaz-Garcia was arrested again in November 2006, but again the circumstances are unclear. This time he was prosecuted in federal court.

He pleaded guilty to the charge of re-entry after deportation by an aggravated felon in January 2007. On May 24, 2007, Chief District Judge Gregory M. Sleet sentenced him to time served -- or about six months -- and he was turned over to immigration authorities and deported in July.

Less than a year later, Diaz-Garcia was back, with Delaware State Police arresting him on May 9 for shoplifting men's cologne from the Sears department store on Kirkwood Highway.

This put Diaz-Garcia back in front of Sleet on June 20.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Keir Bradford suggested at the hearing that the persistent violations were in part due to Diaz-Garcia's relationship with a woman here.

She told Sleet that this time, his wife would be returning to the Dominican Republic with Diaz-Garcia when he is deported.

Diaz-Garcia was not able to gain U.S. citizenship by marrying this woman because he previously had been convicted of a felony, according to attorneys.

Through a translator, a slumped Diaz-Garcia explained his actions in court by saying he was "overwhelmed" by unspecified personal problems.

He then asked Sleet, "Maybe you could forgive me one more time?"

Sleet was left briefly speechless in apparent exasperation. "There comes a point that one has to say ... 'You just don't get it.' You have very little respect for this country's laws."

And while Sleet expressed regret at the taxpayers having to spend anything more on Diaz-Garcia, he said some kind of punishment beyond another deportation was called for, and ordered him to prison for nine months for violating the terms of his previous release.

"This is the limit of my ability to punish you," he said.

So, given Diaz-Garcia's almost migratory pattern of returning to Delaware every two years, what do authorities and experts expect in 2010?

"I think this guy has learned his lesson," said Ting, because of the prison sentence this time. "He always gets caught and he knows it is getting tougher."

Hirsch believes Diaz-Garcia will try again, but expects he will get caught and end up with even more prison time.

"I can assure you if he shows up in Delaware again," said prosecutor Connolly, "he will end up in federal court."

Contact Sean O'Sullivan at 324-2777 or sosullivan@delawareonline.com.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs ... /806300329

Expect him in Philadelphia

Originally Posted by Richard

Expect him in Philadelphia

Plenty of room in an expanding suburban maximum security prison near Philly for him.