Criminal illegal immigrants targeted

BY MARK BOWES
Media General News Service
Published: May 26, 2009

Stubborn determination and repeated illegal border crossings made Pedro Garcia-Mendez a perfect candidate for the federal Illegal Re-Entry Project.

Nearly 20 years ago, the Guatemala native illegally entered the United States but was quickly nabbed by U.S. border patrol agents near Brownsville, Texas. He was deported within a month.

That didn’t deter him. He re-entered in 1991, 1992, 1994 and 1998 but was immediately caught each time and deported.

Last summer, he turned up a sixth time when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents found him at the Richmond City Jail, where he was being held on an assault charge.

His border-crossing days, though, may be at an end.

Now 62, Garcia-Mendez was recently convicted in U.S. District Court in Richmond under the Illegal Re-Entry Project, a little-known federal enforcement program that targets illegal immigrants with significant criminal histories and those who repeatedly re-enter the country.

With little fanfare or publicity — and some questioning from immigrant advocates — ICE agents have worked with the U.S. attorney’s office here during the past three years to prosecute 143 illegal immigrants. Many of them are hard-core offenders who have committed violent crimes against Virginians.

The program was tailored for central Virginia and designed to “address the impact that criminal illegal aliens have on the community,“ said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen P. Miller, who heads the Richmond Division office. “We’re focusing on the individuals who have kind of set themselves apart because they are engaged in criminal behavior.“

The effort is essentially a regional version of ICE’s Criminal Alien Program, which targets the “worst of the worstâ€