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06-02-2017, 02:11 PM #1
VT - Mexican Farmworker Arrested in Orange County
By Mike Donoghue
Valley News Correspondent
Thursday, June 01, 2017
Burlington — A 29-year-old Mexican man who has been deported from the United States four times in seven years for being in the country illegally was arrested last month at a farm in Orange County after federal authorities traced him, in part, through social media posts, according to court records.
Darinel Calvo-Santis was working on a farm on Roxbury Line Road in West Brookfield, Vt., when he was picked up by a team of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from the Enforcement and Removal Office in St. Albans, Vt., on May 17, federal court records show.
Calvo-Santis was due to appear in federal court in Burlington on Thursday for a detention hearing, but his federal public defender filed a motion to cancel the hearing.
Later on Thursday, a federal grand jury formally indicted Calvo-Santis on the single charge that he was back in the United States after his most recent deportation on Sept. 30, 2015. No court date has been set for Calvo-Santis to enter a plea.
If convicted, Calvo-Santis faces up to two years in prison and deportation at the end of any sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Boscia said in court papers.
Court records show Deportation Officer John Trantum reported he initially became aware of Calvo-Santis in October 2016 “during an investigation into multiple other undocumented (immigrants) living and working in Vermont.”
Calvo-Santis had made use of social media, including multiple pictures and videos showing him in Montpelier, including at a restaurant, and in St. Albans, Trantum wrote in a court affidavit.
Trantum said he was part of a team that went to the farm and met with farmer Scott Wakefield to explain why the federal investigators were there. Wakefield was shown a picture of Calvo-Santis and the farmer said he recognized him as a worker known as “Jose,” according to the affidavit.
Wakefield, after consulting with his father by cellphone, agreed to help find Calvo-Santis, Trantum wrote. He said Wakefield and the federal officers went in search of Calvo-Santis and located him in a barn across the road from the residence.
Calvo-Santis acknowledged his identity when confronted by Trantum, court records show. He was placed under arrest without incident, Trantum said.
Calvo-Santis was brought to the ICE office in St. Albans. His fingerprints brought up records showing he was an undocumented immigrant who had been removed from the country four times in seven years, Trantum said.
Wakefield, in a phone interview, said he cooperated with authorities when they arrived at the farm. He said the farm was unaware of any immigration issues with the employee.
Shawn Neudauer, a public affairs officer for ICE, confirmed in an email on Thursday the arrest at the West Brookfield farm.
“Mr. Calvo-Santis has a prior removal order issued by a federal immigration judge in 2008, and he has previously been deported from the United States four times. His case has been referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Vermont for prosecution of illegal re-entry after a lawful removal (a federal felony). He will remain in custody pending judicial proceedings. There were no other arrests made during the encounter with Mr. Calvo-Santis,” he wrote.
He said Calvo-Santis was the lone person arrested and nobody else was “even questioned.”
Migrant Justice, a Burlington-based group that has been critical of federal authorities picking up farmworkers, did not respond to multiple phone messages seeking comment.
Court records show Calvo-Santis was:
deported from Nogales, Ariz., on Nov. 12, 2008, after serving a two-day prison sentence for being in the country illegally;
deported from El Paso, Texas, on Dec. 30, 2009;
deported from Calexico, Calif., on April 25, 2014. It came after being sentenced to 75 days in prison for being in the country illegally;
and deported from Laredo, Texas, on Sept. 30, 2015.
Federal Magistrate Judge John M. Conroy ordered Calvo-Santis held without bail after his arrest in Orange County last week, but the hearing planned for Thursday afternoon was to consider his possible release pending trial.
The question appeared moot. Boscia, the federal prosecutor, had earlier petitioned the court to hold Calvo-Santis based on his past record of four deportations along with two criminal convictions for being in the United States illegally, records show.
Boscia said even if Calvo-Santis won release from criminal court, a federal immigration detainer has been filed.
“Were he released in the context of this proceeding, the defendant would move into immigration custody pending conclusion of the prosecution,” Boscia wrote.
He also said there is no reason for Calvo-Santis to stick around for his trial.
“There is an incentive for the defendant to flee from prosecution, and possibly even the country, to avoid imprisonment,” the prosecutor said.
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