Deportees Face U.S. Crackdown if They Return

Federal authorities in Los Angeles and elsewhere are aggressively prosecuting illegal immigrants with criminal records who return to the United States after being deported--a policy shift that is swamping federal courts and filling prisons.

The get-tough approach is part of the nation’s ongoing crackdown against illegal immigrants with criminal histories.

Returning to the United States after being barred from reentry is a crime that, until recently, was seldom prosecuted. But armed with increased resources, authorities are charging these immigrants like never before, taking advantage of new laws that provide for prison sentences of up to 20 years.

Take the case of Maximo Marquez-Perez. Four times in the past few years, the 24-year-old Mexican citizen returned illegally to the United States after being deported. He did it again in August, traveling to the Huntington Beach home of his wife and son.

He will now pay a heavy price. Marquez-Perez, a former gang member whose most egregious conviction was for selling $40 worth of cocaine, was picked up in a routine traffic stop. He was turned over to immigration authorities and sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison, double the time he served for all his previous crimes.

Marquez-Perez is one of thousands snared by the U.S. Justice Department effort.

In California’s Central District, which includes Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, the number of “illegal reentry” cases involving immigrants with criminal records more than doubled in 1997-98, to 266.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles reports that these prosecutions last year made up a fifth of its caseload, more than any other crime. The Orange County federal public defender’s office dedicates nearly one-third of its resources to representing these defendants.

“We are awash in . . . cases,” said federal Public Defender H. Dean Steward, who heads the Orange County office. “It’s a terrible drain on attorney resources.”

Critics say the new policy is being applied unfairly by prosecutors who target some immigrants over others, and by federal judges who issue widely inconsistent sentences.

Laws barring deportees with criminal backgrounds from reentering the United States have been on the books for years. But, until recently, such statutes were rarely enforced because authorities lacked the manpower to apprehend, identify and prosecute violators. That is changing, in part, because of record budget increases for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The court crunch is even more severe along the U.S.-Mexico border. In San Diego federal court, 1,476 deportees with records were prosecuted for illegal reentry in 1998, exceeding the total number prosecuted from 1985 to 1994. Nationally, prosecutions jumped almost fourfold from 1994 to 1998--from 698 to 2,749.

“We’re just inundated,” said Fred Kay, who heads the federal public defender’s office in Tucson. Officials there plan to hire more staff to help with the extra work.

The policy also is contributing to record growth in the number of federal prisoners.

More than 10% of the 1,028 inmates at the Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution, for example, are immigrants with criminal histories who are now serving time for illegally reentering the country. The INS has to lease space at local jails to hold those awaiting trial.

Federal authorities say the effort rids American communities of criminals who habitually cross the border to commit crimes. The threat of imprisonment is an effective deterrent, they say, and has contributed to lower crime rates, especially in border regions.

“We think that prosecuting several thousand individuals who have committed every imaginable type of crime, including homicide, rape and robbery . . . has had an impact,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. John Kraemer in San Diego.

New Policy Has Critics

But immigrant rights advocates and federal public defenders say there is no evidence that the policy is affecting crime or unlawful immigration. Moreover, critics call the measures unfair, largely because prison sentences vary widely from one federal district court to another.

For instance, federal courts in the Central District of California--which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties--routinely issue sentences of six years, triple the penalty typically handed down by federal judges in San Diego. Defense attorneys say one reason is that prosecutors in Los Angeles are reluctant to accept less than six-year sentences in plea bargain agreements.

Last week, a federal appeals court concluded that “gross sentencing disparities” exist in such cases, opening the door for judges to impose lighter penalties. “The government has identified no other federal criminal statute that has spawned such enormous disparities,” the judges wrote.

Federal public defenders in Los Angeles say the court decision could ultimately lead to reduced sentences for dozens already convicted of illegal reentry.

Even with shorter sentences, some advocates say the penalties do not fit the crime. Illegal presence in the United States, many contend, is the ultimate “victimless” crime--often committed by people reuniting with family members or seeking work.

“People are serving sentences that are way out of whack and unfair,” said Dan Kesselbrenner, director of the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild. “Typically a crime is, you steal, you hurt, you defraud, you kill somebody. Here, there’s no one who is a victim of the person’s presence in the United States.”

Defense attorneys also complain prosecution is largely arbitrary. “Not even close to half the people who commit the crime are being charged,” said Karl Gunn, senior deputy federal public defender in Los Angeles. “So you have this hidden, unreviewable prosecutorial decision that affects people’s lives.”

In Los Angeles, prosecutors say limited resources require they focus on deportees with the most serious criminal histories. “We simply cannot prosecute every case that we would like to . . . so we’re going to focus on the worst of the worst,” said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for Alejandro N. Mayorkas, U.S. attorney in Los Angeles.

Some critics say the policy amounts to an illegal scheme of “preventive detention,” aimed at locking up those who authorities believe pose a future threat.

Defense lawyers say the crackdown unfairly penalizes ex-offenders who have paid their debts to society. A substantial number are longtime legal residents, many with U.S.-born children, who are only subject to deportation because of their past record.

“They’ve already been punished for those crimes, and many come back and haven’t committed any further crimes,” said Maria Stratton, who heads the federal public defender’s office in Los Angeles.

Part of Larger Effort

But prosecutors and other proponents say they cannot allow illegal immigrants with criminal records to reenter the country without fear of penalty.

In fact, the ongoing crackdown is part of a broader national effort to identify immigrants whose criminal records subject them to deportation. The INS now regularly canvasses jails and prisons nationwide.

“A criminal is a criminal,” said John McAllister, the INS assistant district director for investigations in Los Angeles. “The public wants all criminals off the streets, and if it happens to be people in the country illegally, we endeavor to take care of that.”

The crackdown was strengthened in 1996 with the passage of two laws making it easier for the INS to deport illegal immigrants. The laws also set maximum sentences of 20 years for illegal reentry.

Now, illegal immigrants convicted of a so-called aggravated felony--a broad category of crimes ranging from small-time drug dealing to murder--cannot reenter the country for as long as 20 years after being deported.

In the most recent fiscal year, the INS deported 171,000 illegal immigrants, a 50% increase from the previous year. About one-third had criminal records, the INS said.

Marquez-Perez, who is facing six years behind bars, served sentences for four previous crimes. In an interview from Santa Ana Jail, Marquez-Perez said he only returned to this country to retrieve his wife and 2-year-old son. Huntington Beach police stopped him for driving without a front license plate.

His wife, 18-year-old Alma Vasquez, said she was preparing to move to Mexico at the time.

“We are willing to leave with him at the moment and not come back,” Vasquez wrote to the federal judge who sentenced her husband. “Please. Please, with tears in my eyes and my heart in my hands, let my husband be free . . . so we can form a new life in Mexico.”

The sentence leaves Marquez-Perez sad and bitter. “I changed my life . . . I quit drugs and the gang,” he said. “And now they’re giving me six years for nothing.”

Prosecutors say Marquez-Perez had no plans to return to Mexico and probably would have returned to crime. His plight draws no sympathy from opponents of illegal immigration.

“I don’t think anyone wants to see these people on the streets of the U.S.,” said Ira Mehlman, a spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

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Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell contributed to this story.