Man picked up by immigration 14 times
By Daralyn Schoenewald schoenewaldd@reporternews.com
Friday, June 5, 2009

The resident of San Luis Potosi, Mexico has been picked up by U.S. Immigration and Department of Homeland Security thirteen times.

A Sunday stop by Senort Border Patrol Agent John Kinney III brought that total to 14, a number one official said isn't unusual at all.

"I've had guys in the 10s and teens, some as many as 20 times," said assistant federal public defender David Sloan, who has been assigned to defend de Dios-Garcia. "It depends on the individual's circumstance. I don't know that the number matters as much as the circumstances do."

De Dios-Garcia, whose age has not been made public, has been granted voluntary departure from the U.S. on nine occasions, been deported to Mexico four previous times and has been prosecuted for illegal entry for times, court records show.

The latest apprehension was on Sunday in Putnam, where de Dios-Garcia entered the country illegally in early May by crossing the border near Hildalgo, Texas, according to a federal criminal complaint.

It was at least the second time de Dios Garcia, who is also known as Manuel Penas-Varsenos, was apprehended in Callahan County. he was stopped by Department of Public Safety troopers in Clyde in May 2007 and ran from the officers. He was arrested after a brief pursuit on foot, according to court documents. He told Border Patrol agents then that he'd entered the country illegally in January 2006 near Laredo, Texas.

Sloan, who has not yet met with de Dios-Garcia, said he cannot comment specifically on his client's case but said many people he defends in immigration cases "keep trying again and again" to enter the country because they face "pretty stark choices."

"Sometimes they have family on this side of the border. Their wife, their children -- they may be U.S. residents," Sloan said. "They may have a sick person at home in Mexico., where hospital expenses are about the same (as in the U.S.) but the wages are 10 times lower. They're just trying to find work to earn money."

What it often comes down to, Sloan said, is survival.

"I can't say what I would do in that situation but what it really comes down to is, does my family eat or do I cross that line in the sand and try to find better wages on the other side?"

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Lubbock and a spokesman for the Border Patrol did not immediately return messages seeking comment on the case.


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