http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1314632&secid=1

February 13, 2006

Deported criminals sometimes return


By R. SCOTT RAPPOLD THE GAZETTE

For Fredy Lopez-Gamez, American justice has been a revolving door.

In September, after four arrests in Colorado Springs, he was finally deported by the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to his native Mexico, a free ride home that didn’t keep him away for long.

Within two months, police say, he was back, masterminding the brazen kidnapping of a prominent local businessman on Nov. 25.

Three days after the kidnapping, a prior felony drug case that could have netted Lopez-Gamez four to 12 years in prison was dropped. Prosecutors thought he was still in Mexico, and a judge ordered the case dismissed.

Though police have arrested three alleged co-conspirators in the kidnapping, including


Lopez-Gamez’s brother, he remains at large, and police think he returned to Mexico.

Authorities say his case illustrates a troubling loophole in immigration enforcement, one that has allowed many illegal immigrants to escape punishment for crimes committed in the United States.

ICE frequently deports them, with little regard for whatever criminal charges they face here, authorities say. And after escaping justice for one crime, many return to commit another.

Of 3,445 illegal immigrants deported from October 2004 to last September from Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho — most from Colorado — 1,708 had criminal convictions, according to ICE. The agency has no statistics on how many return after being deported.

El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa and other local officials hope Lopez-Gamez’s case serves as a wake-up call to ICE and to lawmakers.

“Obviously, deporting is not the answer, because they come back and commit a kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon,â€