Mexican national deported 5 times charged with illegally returning to Norwalk again

By ZACH MURDOCK
HARTFORD COURANT |
AUG 27, 2019 | 6:24 PM

A Mexican national who already has been removed from the United States five times has been charged with illegally reentering the country again, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Armando Machorro-Rojas, 42, is a citizen of Mexico who was living in Norwalk when he was arrested by local police and charged in connection with a burglary earlier this summer and officials discovered he has a long history of returning to the country illegally, U.S. Attorney John Durham said.

Machorro-Rojas was released on bond until Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested him earlier this month and a grand jury returned an indictment that he illegally reentered the U.S. after he was last deported, prosecutors said.

Machorro-Rojas pleaded not guilty to the charge Tuesday in federal court in Bridgeport, prosecutors said.

Federal immigration officials have been familiar with Machorro-Rojas since March 2007, when he twice encountered U.S. Border Patrol officers near the southern border and voluntarily returned to Mexico, prosecutors said.

Five years later, he was arrested by Norwalk police and charged with operating a motor vehicle without a license. He was deported a month later, court records show.

Border patrol officers encountered Machorro-Rojas in March 2015 near Bisbee, Ariz., and he was again deported a month after that incident, according to court records.

That same summer he came across border patrol near Santa Teresa, N.M., prosecutors said. He was charged and pleaded guilty to one count of reentry of a removed alien and was removed to Mexico again in July 2015.

Machorro-Rojas apparently returned to Norwalk in the years since and was arrested May 31 and charged with third-degree burglary, third-degree larceny, risk of injury, breach of peace and resisting arrest, according to court records.

Federal authorities filed an immigration detainer, but it was not honored and Machorro-Rojas was released on bond on July 5, prosecutors said.

He was rearrested Aug. 9 and has been detained since. If convicted, Machorro-Rojas faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

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