http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2667112

Case underscores re-entry sentencing disparity
Judge is debating: Should a person sneaking back into Utah get more jail time than if they were caught in another state?

By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune


Raul Enrique Perez-Chavez made at least two mistakes: Sneaking back into the United States after being kicked out once before. And getting caught in Utah.
Had he been picked up in Arizona or New Mexico, the Mexican national would be eligible to have time shaved off his sentence by pleading guilty and skipping a trial. In Utah, though, this fast-track program aimed at cutting down court backlogs is unavailable.
Perez-Chavez might get a break anyway: U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell says he is troubled that some defendants receive longer sentences than others who are charged with the identical crime in another state.
"This would seem to be a 'fast track to disparity' that should be avoided," the judge wrote in a recent order.
He has asked the defense attorneys and prosecutors in the

Raul Enrique Perez-Chavez

case to give him briefs on whether, when he decides Perez-Chavez's punishment, he should take into account the average sentence meted out in border states.
Assistant federal defender Carlos A. Garcia says he should.
Garcia points out that approximately 73 percent of illegal re-entry cases are handled in districts with fast-track programs. The average sentence in those districts for an immigration offense is 28.7 months, Garcia says, compared to 41 months in Utah.
"By adopting the selective fast-track programs, the Attorney General has guaranteed that similarly situated defendants will receive significantly different sentences based solely on their geographical locations," Garcia has written to Cassell.
The U.S. Attorney's Office countered that extending the fast-track to a defendant in Utah would usurp prosecutors' discretion.
"The decision by a few districts to deal with their crushing caseloads of re-entry cases by using fast-track plea bargain policies is perfectly sensible and entirely constitutional," assistant U.S. attorney Dustin Pead wrote.
Congress gave the U.S. Attorney General the authority to create fast-track programs in the 2003 PROTECT Act (Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today). These programs give shorter sentences to defendants who save court time by pleading guilty.
With the number of immigration offenses increasing - 2,300 in fiscal 1991 to 10,458 in fiscal 2001, according to the Justice Department - 14 of the nation's 94 federal districts have been granted
permission to use the fast-track system for these crimes. The districts are in both border and non-border states, including Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Georgia, Nebraska and North Dakota.
A request last year by Utah's district to start a fast-track program was turned down, because it efficiently prosecutes its 200 to 250 immigration cases a year.
"We're a victim of our own success," Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Salt Lake City, noting Utah has more illegal entry cases than most other non-border states.
Garcia also is asking for leniency based on the circumstances of his case.
Perez-Chavez and his wife, Mayra Selene Garcia-Wong Valencia, then the parents of three young boys, were deported in March 2003. When Garcia-Wong became pregnant and developed severe health problems, she first sent the two older children to live with her mother in Utah, then followed herself when her doctor said she needed medical care in the United States to save her unborn child, according to Garcia.
He says the baby was born three months premature and required months of treatment. Already stressed by caring for two youngsters and a sick infant, Garcia-Wong reached the breaking point when her grandfather became terminally ill. She asked Perez-Chavez to come to Utah.
The husband returned in November, according to his lawyer. In January, he and his wife were charged with re-entry of a previously removed immigrant. Both pleaded guilty.
Garcia-Wong was sentenced Feb. 23 by Cassell to time served and will be deported. Her husband is scheduled to be sentenced on May 12. Prosecutors are asking for an enhanced sentence of up to 20 years because Perez-Chavez has a previous conviction for methamphetamine possession.
pmanson@sltrib.com