http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/news/lo ... 174499.htm

Posted on Wed, Dec. 06, 2006

Judge: Man is old enough for trial on immigration charges
BY RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle

For the second time in as many months, Marcos Ramires-Ramires failed to convince a judge that he's too young to face federal criminal immigration charges.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten on Tuesday set a trial for next week in what officials have said is turning into a unique immigration case.

Ramires is from Guatemala and since July has been held in the Butler County Jail. He claims he's only 17 -- a juvenile, which would require his case to be handled differently.

But Marten said the evidence shows Ramires is really 19 and should face a jury Tuesday on charges of returning to the United States after being deported, lying to a federal agent about his identity, and providing false documents.

John Rapp, the Wichita lawyer representing Ramires, produced an original of a disputed civil registration from the Guatemalan town of Ixchiguan.

It says that Marco Tulio Rene Ramirez Ramirez is 17.

Marten pointed to the discrepancies in the names of the two men -- a different first name and spelling of the last name. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent also testified that Ramires-Ramires had never before given those middle names.

The town of Ixchiguan is in western Guatemala, described in State Department and CIA reports as an impoverished, high-crime area near Mexico ruled by a strong illegal drug industry.

Karl Timmons, a deportation agent with ICE in Wichita, testified Tuesday that he couldn't get officials from the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala to go to Ixchiguan to verify the document. Officials there said a trip to the village would take six hours and "the roads were too dangerous." They would only call the town, where someone told them the document was valid.

Timmons also told the judge that reports from officials with the State Department indicated nearly all of the males of working age in Ixchiguan had fled the town.

Ramires, who had told ICE agents his father is in the Boston area, was featured in an Oct. 29 Eagle story about the government's pursuit of illegal immigrants. He is charged with illegally re-entering the U.S. after deportation, making false statements to federal agents and identity theft.

If convicted, Ramires faces maximum sentences of five years on the false statement count, two years on the illegal re-entry charge and an added two-year mandatory term on the identity theft charge. He also could be fined as much as $250,000 on each count.