FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	CONTACT: Lauren Horwood
January 7, 2011	PHONE: (916) 554-2706
www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae	usacae.edcapress@usdoj.gov

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner and U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) - Enforcement and Removal Operations, Field Office Director Timothy Aitken announced today that in the most recent fiscal year, filings of felony illegal re-entry cases in the Eastern District of California were at the highest level in at least 12 years. In federal Fiscal Year 2010, ending September 30, there were 432 felony cases filed involving 432 defendants, representing a 7 percent increase in filings over FY 2009. The FY 2009 figure of 404 defendants represented a 48 percent increase over FY 2008, when 271 defendants were charged, and a nearly 130 percent increase over FY 2007, when 173 were charged. The cases all consisted of prosecutions for illegal re-entry to the United States after a prior deportation in violation of Section 1326 of Title 8 of the United States Code.

The defendants targeted for criminal prosecution were aliens who were re-arrested in the Eastern District of California after previously serving prison time for aggravated felonies in the United States, such as crimes of violence or drug trafficking crimes, and after being previously been deported. Most defendants convicted under Section 1326 are sentenced to between two and six years in federal prison, and are required to serve at least 85 percent of that time before being re-deported. The Eastern District of California covers 34 counties in the Central Valley and the Sierras, from the Los Angeles County line to the Oregon border.

Defendants convicted of Section 1326 offenses during FY 2010, for example, include a man prosecuted by the Fresno office who had numerous prior state and federal convictions including robbery, burglary, kidnapping, child molestation, soliciting lewd acts, failure to register as a sex offender, illegal re-entry into the United States, and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship, and had previously been removed from the country on five occasions. Another defendant prosecuted in Fresno had been removed three times, and had previous state and federal convictions for drug trafficking, vehicle theft, lewd and lascivious acts with a child under age 14, and alien smuggling. Each of them was sentenced to more than five years in prison. Another defendant prosecuted in Fresno had been removed four times, and had two previous convictions for burglary, and convictions for drug trafficking and inflicting corporal injury on a spouse. He was sentenced to 51 months in prison. A defendant prosecuted by the Sacramento office who had been removed from the country eight times had seven previous battery convictions, and had also been convicted of burglary, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, and illegal re-rentry to the United States. He was sentenced to over five years.

United States Attorney Wagner said: “The criminal aliens targeted for prosecution by this office are those who pose a genuine public safety threat to our communities. They are persons who previously had been convicted of serious crimes and then deported, only to return to California and engage in further criminal activity. No matter where one stands in the larger debate over federal immigration laws, there should be little debate over the prosecution of serious criminals who illegally return to California after prior deportations. I commend the diligent work of the agents and prosecutors who have worked so hard to bring these cases over the past year.”

“These prosecutions send an important message to criminal aliens who believe they can treat deportation as little more than a revolving door,” said Timothy Aitken, the Field Office Director who oversees ICE enforcement and removal operations in Sacramento. “If you commit crimes in this country, get removed, and come back illegally, we will seek to prosecute you and put you in federal prison. We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. ICE is bringing all of its tools to bear against those who show no regard for those laws.”

The statistics cited above do not include other immigration prosecutions for producing or distributing counterfeit immigration cards, for aliens in possession of firearms, or for other immigration-related offenses. In FY 2010, there was also a sharp increase in prosecutions for illegal entry under Section 1325 of Title 8. That statute, which is a misdemeanor, punishes a person who illegally enters the United States, but who has not previously been convicted of a felony in this country. Many of those prosecutions, which result in shorter sentences, involved aliens who were apprehended in the vicinity of rural marijuana gardens in the Eastern District of California during law enforcement operations.

The increase in felony immigration cases filed in the Eastern District of California resulted from greater investigative and prosecutorial resources dedicated to such offenses. Both this year and last year, the U.S. Department of Justice has authorized additional resources to bring immigration prosecutions in the Sacramento and Fresno offices.     

Many of the cases cited above were prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Michael Anderson and Michele Beckwith in the Sacramento office, and Assistant United States Attorneys Ian Garriques and Susan Phan in the Fresno office. Other prosecutors have also contributed to the effort to increase prosecution of criminal aliens.

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