Man caught driving without a license in McIntosh County getting deported to Mexico
Posted December 15, 2017 03:40 pm | Updated 04:28 pm
By Terry Dickson
BRUNSWICK, GA. | A man who has been in jail since he was caught Sept. 24 driving without a license in McIntosh County will be deported to Mexico after he pleaded guilty to re-entering the country illegally after two earlier deportations.
Another Mexican citizen also arrested in Camden County on battery and cruelty to children charges, pleaded guilty Friday to entering the country illegally.
The two men are among dozens in custody in the Southern District of Georgia on federal charges after years of little criminal action on illegal immigration.
Lucio Gutierrez Hernandez, 44, admitted to U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood in a change of plea hearing Friday morning that he entered the country illegally. She accepted the plea and immediately sentenced Gutierrez to time served and said he would be turned over to a federal deportation officer.
Federal deportation officer James I. McGill Jr. testified Gutierrez was caught and sent back to Mexico after he crossed the border illegally on July 24 and 28, 2009.
Gutierrez told Wood that he has a degree in architecture and had been living in North Carolina until his arrest and had worked in the construction of houses and buildings.
Gutierrez said he is not married but has two children, 11 and 4, living in the U.S.
His lawyer, Whitney Johnson, told the court Gutierrez crossed the border alone in 2009.
“It was a full moon, and he was able to travel at night,” Johnson said. “He did it alone so as to not get others in trouble.”
Speaking through an interpreter, Gutierrez said, “I beg for forgiveness.” He also said it would be very hard to leave his children behind.
Wood did not order him to serve any probation since he will be out of the country but warned, “You simply have to remember you cannot come back to the U.S.”
Carlos Rosas-Gonzalez, 37, also pleaded guilty but he won’t know his fate for awhile. Like Gutierrez, he was charged with re-entry without the permission of the U.S. attorney general or the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
McGill told the court that Rosas previously was deported five times in 2009, on Feb. 14 at El Paso, Texas, and four other times between March 17 and Dec. 1, 2009 in Arizona.
Rosas came to the attention of immigration officials after his arrest Oct. 12 at his Vacuna Road home in Kingsland. Deputies investigating reports Rosas had been physically and verbally abusive to his family arrested him after learning someone in the home had been treated at the hospital after he was hit in the head with a paint can.
Rosas was ultimately charged with misdemeanor battery under the Family Violence Act and felony cruelty to children. Rosas told the court he has five children.
There are others charged with illegal entry throughout the Southern District. They were usually referred to immigration authorities after their arrest on state charges.
http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia...eported-mexico
