Published: 11.02.2007
Border agents arrest convicted child rapist
DAVID L. TEIBEL
Tucson Citizen
U.S. Border Patrol agents picked up a convicted child rapist Thursday morning near Nogales after the man allegedly crossed into the United States illegally, a Border Patrol spokeswoman said.
Jose Cruz-Garcia, a 32-year-old Mexican citizen, was taken into custody on a charge of rentry into the country by an aggravated felon after agents spotted him in the desert west of Nogales, said Border Patrol Agent Dove Haber.
Cruz-Garcia had been convicted of rape of a child in 1998 in Washington and was sentenced to a year in jail, Haber said.
Agents took Cruz-Garcia to the Nogales Border Patrol station and ran his fingerprints through a computerized fingerprint identification system, photographed him and ran his name through international and U.S. crime databases, determining he had been convicted in the sex case, Haber said.
He is being held in a federal detention facility awaiting formal removal proceedings in a federal court, Haber said, adding a judge could order his removal or deportation.
Under removal he could not apply for permission to re-enter the United States for 10 years. If he is deported he could not apply to re-enter the country for about 20 years, Haber said.
She said she did not know how long Cruz-Garcia would have to wait for his case to come up in court.
During the last fiscal year, from Oct. 1, 2006 to Sept. 30, Border Patrol agents using computerized fingerprint identification systems identified 127 sex crime convicts who were trying to enter the country. Figures for this fiscal year were not available, Haber said.

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