Local Border Patrol agents catching more career criminals
BY JAMES GILBERT
November 27, 2007 - 9:34AM

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents aren't just catching illegal aliens, they're catching more aliens with long rap sheets. According to Yuma Sector spokesman Andrew Patterson an increase in the number of agents assigned to the sector is enabling the agency to capture more criminals who previously got into the country unnoticed.

"We don't expect it to stop," Patterson said. "We are seeing a lot more of (illegal aliens with criminal records) trying to come across the border and we are catching them."

While having more agents in the field has contributed to catching these foreign-born career criminals, so has having improved technology such as border fencing, day and night cameras, ground-searching radar, sensors, improved field communication and unmanned aerial surveillance systems.

"In the past, we had to pick and choose our battles because we didn't have the manpower to go after a single individual or small group that had a few hours; head start because it left the border open and that was a problem," Patterson said. "We were catching them before, it just wasn't as often."

Nowadays, Patterson said, when agents come across a set of tracks, even ones that are several hours old, the agency has the manpower to follow the footprints without having to pull agents away from patrolling the border.

"Usually after a couple of hours, they have had time to get a prearranged ride or a drop house. Now there is more time spent hiding from agents who are their heels."

Although statistics were not immediately available on Monday, Patterson did say agents know anecdotally that the increase in Border Patrol staffing and resources in the sector has enabled the patrol to catch a larger number of those aliens with criminal records than in the past.

Sunday night, Antonio Rosales Rico, a 52-year-old illegal alien previously convicted of transportation and sales of cocaine in California, was arrested by Border Patrol agents along the Colorado River east of the U.S. Port of Entry at Andrade, Calif.

A records check revealed he had been arrested on the cocaine charge and convicted in 2001 in Los Angeles, the patrol said. He was sentenced to serve 180 days in jail and three years of probation.

Further checks revealed that Rico has been deported two times by immigration officials. He spent a total of 270 days in jail and served three years probation for his previous crimes.

Earlier in the day Sunday, Border Patrol agents also arrested 41-year-old Pedro Alvarado-Suarez, an illegal alien, near Winterhaven.

Alvarado-Suarez has 23 previous arrests in Arizona, California, Montana and Washington dating back to 1986, according to the patrol.

Alvarado-Suarez's prior charges were robbery, burglary, assault, possession and sale of a controlled substance, vehicle theft and unlawful use of firearm, according to the Border Patrol.

He has served a total of eight years in prison and 13 years on probation. A records check also disclosed Alvarado-Suarez was deported three times by immigration officials.

Last week, Yuma Sector agents arrested a convicted sex offender who had a 17-year criminal background, and another individual, in a separate bust, who had been arrested on 26 prior occasions.
The sex offender was arrested after agents patrolling the area found evidence of an illegal entry near the Colorado River and County 20th Street. Agents followed footprints at the scene into San Luis, Ariz., where they arrested the man.

A background check found he had been arrested on prior occasions on charges such as lewd and lascivious acts with a child, sexual battery, drug dealing, battery, trespassing and loitering, as well as various immigration offenses. He had been formally deported from the United States five times previously, the patrol said.

The other arrest came after agents noticed evidence that one person had crossed the Colorado River near County 9th Street. He was apprehended about an hour later after agents tracked him east from the river. His prior offenses date back to 1996, and he had spent a total of about four years in jail on the offenses.

"I don't know what their motivation would be to continue trying to re-enter the country, but they have obviously been involved in some devious activities here in the United States," Patterson said. "They all have extensive rap sheets."

Patterson explained that these deported criminals cannot enter the country legally through a U.S. port of entry, so they are forced to sneak across the border.

He added that someone who has been convicted for the first time of entering the country illegally and deported cannot return to this country legally for five years.

With each subsequent conviction, the punishment gets more severe, according to Patterson. An individual who has been convicted and deported twice cannot return for 10 years, while someone who has been convicted and deported three times must wait 20 years.

"If you are deported a fourth time, you can never re-enter this country legally," Patterson said. "It's like a three-strike system."

The only exception, Patterson said, is someone who has been convicted of an aggravated felony. Someone in the country illegally who commits a crime of this nature is banned from ever being able to return.
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