June 24, 2008

Violent illegal alien sentenced to 7 years for re-entering the United States


GREENBELT, Md. - Miguel Montez-Flores, 36, a Mexican national residing in Silver Spring, Md., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. to seven years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for illegally re-entering the country after being deported. Montez-Flores will be deported after serving his seven year sentence in federal prison. The investigation was lead by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with assistance by the Montgomery County Police Department.

"This sentence demonstrates that the United States government will pursue violent offenders utilizing all available resources," stated James A. Dinkins, Special Agent in Charge of ICE. "We will work with our law enforcement partners to ensure that criminal aliens are prosecuted to the fullest extent allowable under the law."

According to his guilty plea and evidence presented at today's hearing, in 1996 Montez-Flores was twice convicted of drug charges and deported. Since that time, he has illegally re-entered the United States and has been convicted three times of driving under the influence of alcohol and various other motor vehicle and assault charges. Montez-Flores used an alias when he was convicted of these charges.

Today's sentencing is the result of a 2007 arrest in which Montez-Flores refused an officer's order to leave a "no loitering' area. According to testimony at today's hearing, Montez-Flores refused to identify himself and attempted to assault the officer. When he was finally placed under arrest, Montez-Flores threatened to kill the officers.

Once placed in the cruiser, he repeatedly kicked the windows, the vehicle's computer, police radio and other items, eventually kicking out the rear passenger window of a cruiser. When officers tried to remove him from the vehicle, he repeatedly spat at them and kicked them.

In the last eight months, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) referrals nationwide resulted in the felony prosecution of more than 3,800 criminal aliens for re-entering the country after deportation, more than double the number of re-entry cases the agency recorded in all of last year.

The heightened focus on re-entry prosecutions is part of the Department of Homeland Security's multi-year plan to secure America's borders and reduce illegal migration. That strategy seeks to gain operational control of both the northern and southern borders, while re-engineering the detention and removal system to ensure that illegal aliens are removed from the country quickly and efficiently.
-- ICE --

http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases ... enbelt.htm