Updated: 5:41 PM Nov 23, 2011

Three Time Deported Illegal Immigrant Sentenced to Jail; Brings up Immigration Issues

Both Democrats and Republicans have been pushing for immigration reform, but it hasn't happened yet. Today in Rockford the case of one illegal immigrant brings some of the issues to light.

Posted: 5:27 PM Nov 23, 2011
Reporter: Meghan Dwyer

ROCKFORD (WIFR) -- Both Democrats and Republicans have been pushing for immigration reform, but it hasn't happened yet. Today in Rockford the case of one illegal immigrant brings some of the issues to light.

In one man’s case, he is going to prison instead of back to his home country.

Antonio Perez Soto was first kicked out of the United States in 1994, again in 1995, and again in 2006.

He applied for unemployment benefits with a stolen social security number and then got busted again in Rockford.

Immigration Attorney Sara Dady said, "In Mr. Perez-Soto's case he is the minority of people removed from the United States."

That’s because he has a criminal record. One-out-five illegal immigrants have been in trouble with the law. Perez-Soto was sent back to Mexico for the first time when he was twelve.

She said, "There are very few ways to emigrate lawfully to the United States. Very few."

Dady says there aren't enough visas and they take forever to get.

She said, "it may take 19 years for them to attain a visa."

You can't just show up and put your name on a list.

She said, "The immigration laws that we have are deeply flawed. They were well intended but they don't do what we want them to do."

The federal government says it deported 396-thousand people last year. About 20 percent of them had been kicked out at least once before and many of them leave children in foster homes.

Perez-Soto got nearly 4-thousand dollars worth of state benefits before getting caught. He’ll spend the next six and a half years in one of our federal prisons and it's not guaranteed he'll be deported when he finally gets out.

Just to be clear, Perez-Soto didn't earn the unemployment benefits he got: he didn't work.

Nearly 20 percent of Illinois residents were born in another country. As for Perez-Soto he told a federal judge today "I won't be coming back."

http://www.wifr.com/news/headlines/Thre ... 27303.html