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7 illegal immigrants arrested
They all have been deported before

Saturday, January 07, 2006
From staff reports

Seven previously deported immigrants, three of whom have been convicted of felonies, have been arrested since early December in the New Orleans area and Terrebonne Parish and charged with re-entering the United States illegally, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said Friday.

Letten portrayed the arrests and charges as evidence that federal law enforcement officials are vigilant in maintaining internal security by protecting national borders from "potentially dangerous individuals."

Letten's office didn't spell out where each of the seven suspects had been, or when they were previously deported, but said three of them had felony records.

Three of the men were arrested in New Orleans, two in Kenner, one in Tangipahoa Parish, and one in Terrebonne Parish, between Dec. 2 and Jan. 4, according to court documents detailing their alleged crimes and filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, where the defendants face judge or jury trials on the alleged illegal re-entry charges.

Charged were Cesar Armando Medrano-Garcia, Raymundo Zuniga-Hernandez, Marvin Javier Hernandez-Herrera, Maurilio Silva-Gonzales, Jose Luis Trujillo-Loya, Jose Mauricio Godoy and Sixto Martinez-Uribe, Letten's office said.

If convicted, Hernandez-Herrera, Silva-Gonzales, Mauricio-Godoy and Martinez-Uribe face maximum sentences of two years imprisonment each.

The remaining three men, who have the felony convictions, face higher penalties.

According to indictments filed in federal court, Medrano-Garcia, arrested Dec. 15 in St. Tammany Parish, was convicted of aggravated felonies in 1990 and 1993 in Dekalb County, Ga.; Zuniga-Hernandez, arrested Dec. 14 in New Orleans, was convicted of an aggravated felony in San Francisco, Ca., in 1994. They face maximum 20-year terms if convicted.

Trujillo-Loya, arrested Dec. 14 in New Orleans, was convicted of felony crimes in 2002 and 2003, according to his indictment. He faces a maximum 10-year term if convicted.

The nature of their earlier crimes wasn't available.

Border Patrol agents and agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigated the cases, Letten said.