http://www.azstarnet.net/allheadlines/124451

Tucson Region
Sonora police commander held
In Arizona jail; prints match Calif. warrant


By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.13.2006

A Nogales, Sonora, police commander is in the Santa Cruz County jail after immigration authorities matched his fingerprints to a warrant out of California.

On April 4 at about 10:30 p.m., U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers detained Jesus Rolando Villanueva Ramos, 45, as he attempted to pass through the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales, Ariz., said Roger Maier, Customs and Border Protection spokesman.

Officers pulled Villanueva Ramos over for a secondary check and discovered a California warrant for his arrest after running his fingerprints through the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), Maier said.

He was detained and handed over to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department, Maier said.

Sheriff Tony Estrada said the warrant was issued in 2004 out of Sacramento for violating parole on robbery charges stemming from Chula Vista, Calif. Plans have been made to extradite him later this week or next week to Sacramento, Estrada said.

The case has caused a stir in Mexico, where officials questioned if Villanueva Ramos was wrongfully detained. Villanueva Ramos has been with the Nogales, Sonora, Police Department since 1998 and a zone commander since September, according to his attorney, Fernando Gaxiola.

But Customs and Border Protection officials say they double-checked that his fingerprints matched the warrant. On Wednesday, Santa Cruz County officials triple-checked by sending fingerprints taken from jail to Sacramento and received confirmation that they matched those of the man California authorities were looking for, Estrada said.

Estrada believes the confusion was caused by the use of more than 30 aliases by Villanueva Ramos during what he called an extensive record of deportations in the 1980s. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Brian Levin confirmed that Villanueva Ramos has been deported out of California but didn't know how many times.

Gaxiola criticized the handling of the case and said he will see his client exonerated.

This is the way Gaxiola tells it: Villanueva Ramos was released from a state prison in April 1989 and then deported to Mexico by Immigration and Naturalization Service (now Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

In June of 1989, state officials issued a warrant for his failure to report for parole. Since he was deported, Gaxiola said his client shouldn't face charges for violating parole. He said officials reissued the warrant in 2004.

Sheriff Estrada said that would explain why so much time passed between the incident and the appearance of the warrant.

"All it means is that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing," said Gaxiola. "If Immigration removes you from the United States, you didn't break parole, it's as simple as that."

Levin said Villanueva Ramos could face charges of re-entry after deportation but they are concentrating on the warrant first.

● Contact Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.