BY THOMASI MCDONALD
Updated August 29, 2018 09:15 PM

RALEIGH
An El Salvadoran man who has been deported 10 times after criminal convictions was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison Wednesday for illegally entering the United States again.

Jose Alfonso Rodriguez-Garcia, 54, was sentenced in a Raleigh federal court to 115 months behind bars after he was convicted of illegal re-entry of an aggravated felon.

A federal grand jury handed up a one-count indictment against Rodriguez-Garcia on May 3, 2017. Days later, on May 22, Garcia pleaded guilty to the offense, U.S. Attorney Robert J. Higdon Jr. said in a news release.

Federal authorities found Rodriguez-Garcia in Wake County following his arrest on charges of second-degree forcible rape.

Higdon said previous deportations followed convictions for burglary, receiving stolen property, grand theft, theft, attempt to distribute a controlled substance, resisting a public officer, trespassing, possession of controlled substances, auto theft, evading arrest, assault on a female, deported alien found in the United States, illegal re-entry of a previously deported alien and illegal re-entry by a previously deported aggravated felon.

Rodriguez-Garcia disregarded the laws of the United States for years, despite multiple deportations and “conviction after convictions,” Higdon said in the news release.

“With this 115-month sentence, the American citizens, and in particular those of the Eastern District, are safer today because it has put a stop to Rodriguez-Garcia’s treating our borders as a revolving door,” Higdon said.

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/lo...217545165.html