http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=44594

Man sought in Q.C. slayings avoided deportation
By Katie McDevitt, Tribune
July 14, 2005


Rodrigo Cervantes Zavala

A Phoenix man wanted for questioning in Sunday’s triple homicide in Queen Creek avoided being deported in the past because of the way the justice system works and a lack of immigration resources.
3 killed near Queen Creek; 2 kids, dad missing

Law enforcement officials continued to search for Rodrigo Cervantes Zavala, 34, on Wednesday in the kidnapping of his two children and the slaying of the children’s grandparents and uncle.

Cervantes is a convicted felon who has remained in this country illegally and managed to avoid deportation.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement mandated he voluntarily return to Mexico in 1996, but Cervantes returned to the United States.

Immigration officials became aware of his return last year when he was arrested on suspicion of felony burglary, said Russell Ahr, ICE spokesman.

A Maricopa County judge released Cervantes on his own recognizance. Because he wasn’t held in jail for an extended period of time, ICE officials couldn’t detain him, let alone deport him.

But the county jail wasn’t to blame, Ahr said.

The protocol is that when an illegal immigrant is arrested, his information is passed along to the Law Enforcement Support Center in Vermont and a background check is performed, Ahr said. Depending on the outcome, the information is passed along to ICE or both ICE and the jail where the immigrant is being held.

In the case of Cervantes, the message was passed on only to ICE because he was considered a low-risk immigrant â€â€