Thread: Man deported 15 times detained in Escondido

Illegal immigrant with 16 crossings never prosecuted for entering U.S.
By TERI FIGUEROA tfigueroa@nctimes.com | Posted: Saturday, July 23, 2011 5:00 am

In the last four years, Jose Vigil Carbajal has been sent back to his native Mexico 16 times.

His most recent repatriation came Wednesday, two days after he was arrested in Escondido following a traffic stop, according to Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for the San Diego offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

But despite that high number of removals, it appears Carbajal has never faced federal charges for repeatedly crossing the border illegally.

"While Mr. Carbajal has multiple prior immigration arrests, after thoroughly reviewing the details of this case, ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) officers determined that administrative enforcement action was the most appropriate use of ICE's resources at this time," Mack said.

Essentially, the agency decided it was better to remove him from the country than recommend him for federal prosecution. Oftentimes, criminal prosecution is reserved for people with a more violent or egregious criminal history than Carbajal's.

Carbajal's record includes four arrests for drunken driving, two arrests for driving with a suspended license and one arrest for hit-and-run, Escondido police Lt. Craig Carter said.

Earlier this week, Escondido police announced they had arrested Carbajal for a traffic stop, and noted that this was the third time they had arrested him since November. Following his two previous arrests ---- one for a traffic violation and one for disturbing the peace while attending a party --- he was sent back to Mexico.

Federal officials "have made it clear" that only serious and violent felons are prosecuted for repeated entries, said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation of American Immigration Reform, a Washington-based group that favors strict immigration enforcement measures.

"You put priority on the baddest guys, but that doesn't mean that you stop enforcing the law as to everybody else," Mehlman said.

For Senior Border Patrol Agent Shawn Moran, who serves as a vice president for both the local border patrol union and the national Border Patrol council, 16 entries with no prosecutions "doesn't blow my mind."

"When I first came into the Border Patrol (in 1997) I remember arresting ... guys with 50, 60 hits in the system," Moran said. "Over the years they have tightened it up, but the guidelines are so high to get an immigration prosecution."

It's also, he said, "one of the frustrations of the job."

Not much information was available about Carbajal on Friday. A spokesman for the Border Patrol said the agency would not provide information about those whom it arrests.

ICE spokeswoman Mack provided a list of dates Carbajal was returned to Mexico, the first time coming in January 2007, when he voluntarily agreed to leave the U.S. It was the first of six times he was found trying to enter or inside the United States that year.

Carbajal's most recent arrests in Escondido came as part of Operation Joint Effort, which teams the city's police officers with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to target arrestees found to have been previously removed from the country.

Call staff writer Teri Figueroa at 760-740-5442.

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/escon ... z1SwxmOoiQ

Carbajal’s criminal record includes four arrests for driving under the influence, one arrest for hit-and-run and two arrests for driving with a suspended license.

I am curious how he had a suspended license. Was he a legal national at one time, or did he get a license from another state?

"While Mr. Carbajal has multiple prior immigration arrests, after thoroughly reviewing the details of this case, ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) officers determined that administrative enforcement action was the most appropriate use of ICE's resources at this time," Mack said.

Until Mr Carbajal comes back a seventeenth or eighteenth time and kills someone while driving intoxicated and without a license. Then maybe Immigration will prosecute him.

Since its inception, ICE officials have arrested 539 illegal immigrants who were previously deported, had a criminal history or were ICE fugitives at large.

539? Am I the only one that doesn't believe this number?

DUI FOUR TIMES!

Doing the job Americans won't do or spend the rest of their lives in jail for.

Originally Posted by laughinglynx

Since its inception, ICE officials have arrested 539 illegal immigrants who were previously deported, had a criminal history or were ICE fugitives at large.

539? Am I the only one that doesn't believe this number?

DUI FOUR TIMES!

Doing the job Americans won't do or spend the rest of their lives in jail for.

The 539 are for the program that partners I.C.E. and the Escondido Police Department, not the whole country. So that's 539 in one city, Escondido, CA.

The program, launched in May 2010, partners Escondido police with federal immigration-enforcement officers in an effort to help identify and arrest criminal illegal immigrants.

Since its inception, ICE officials have arrested 539 illegal immigrants who were previously deported, had a criminal history or were ICE fugitives at large.

THIS IS WHAT COULD HAPPEN:



Mother seeks justice for daughter killed in crash



Amy Kortlang

By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer | Posted: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 12:00 am

LA MESA - The death of her daughter in a traffic crash that littered a Ramona highway with wreckage has given Melanie Kortlang a new mission.

The 43-year-old La Mesa woman said last week that she now wants justice for her child, 22-year-old Amy Kortlang of Ramona.

She also wants to know how the illegal immigrant arrested for murder after the collision could be here despite previous charges and deportation, Kortlang said.

"How was this (man) allowed to come back … and do the ultimate, which was kill my daughter?" Kortlang asked rhetorically in a phone interview.

She said no one in government has offered any explanations about how Rafael Ramirez Perez, deported to Mexico earlier this year, was back on the road in Ramona the night of Oct. 16.

That's when Perez, 22 and with no valid driver's license, allegedly caused a four-vehicle crash on Highway 67 that killed Amy Kortlang and injured three other people.

He then walked away, authorities said. Perez was arrested two miles from the accident.

"My goal right now is to keep Amy alive (in memory), and to prevent this from ever happening again," Melanie Kortlang said. "We've got to stop it."

Kortlang said she plans on attending all of Perez's court appearances. Her thoughts about him, she said, are "not Christian."

In addition to murder, Perez is charged with gross vehicular manslaughter and two counts of driving under the influence, plus driving without a license.

There is an enhancement alleging he has had at least three drunken driving convictions within the last 10 years.

If convicted of all the charges, Deputy District Attorney Kristian Trocha said Perez could be in prison for 25 years to life.

Perez is currently being held in county jail with bail set at $1 million, in case an immigration hold on him somehow fails, Trocha said.

California Highway Patrol Officer Brian Pennings said Perez was booked into the jail the same as any other suspect. The jails are operated by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

"We screen for birthplace and citizenship of everyone who comes into custody," said Sheriff's Department Capt. Glenn Revell.

He said the information goes to federal immigration authorities. They place jail holds on any suspected illegal immigrants, and those suspects are turned over to them after local cases are completed, Revell said.

Lauren Mack, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego, said after the fatal crash that Perez was handed over to immigration officials earlier this year, after serving time for a drunken driving conviction.

He was deported to Mexico in March, Mack said.

On the night of the crash, Perez was driving his company's work truck when the fatal accident happened on a dark stretch of Highway 67, south of Mussey Grade Road, Highway Patrol officers said.

The company pickup truck veered into the opposite lane and sideswiped a Dodge Caliber before slamming head-on into Amy Kortlang's red Honda Civic. The Honda overturned, and she died at the scene.

Just 18 minutes earlier, Melanie Kortlang said, she had finished some fun text messaging for the night with her daughter, part of their daily communication.

"She had a wonderful sense of humor," Melanie Kortlang said.

The mother recalled her daughter, a cosmetologist who worked at Supercuts in Ramona and at Poway Chevrolet, as a beautiful, responsible young woman "with a smile that would knock your socks off."

"We were at that stage where we confided in one another," said Kortlang.

Her daughter loved her boyfriend of two years, and was on her way to watch him play in a pool tournament in Poway when the crash happened, she said.

Melanie Kortlang and her husband, Robert, also have a 16-year-old daughter, Jessica.

"It's just this emptiness to us," Kortlang said about her oldest daughter's death. "I've never been so sad in my entire life. It's moment by moment. Right now I'm in a tunnel."

- Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com.


Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sdcou ... z1Syka80k9

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