Federal agents took an illegal immigrant to Grant Medical Center in October 2009 to collect proof of his ties to a Mexican-based drug ring.
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| A Mexican immigrant who committed a misdemeanor by entering the U.S. illegally to find work was later deported but still returned because he said he couldn't make a living there. He knows he faces felony charges and prison time if he is caught for sneaking back after deportation. |
During his two-day hospital stay, Jose Aranda-Mora supplied the needed evidence - 92 balloons of heroin that he had swallowed before a traffic stop in Richland County.
Three months earlier, immigration agents had deported Mora to his homeland of Mexico. But the free ride home served as no deterrent. Since 2000, Mora has been deported four times, only to return time and again - most recently to Ohio.
A Dispatch investigation revealed that it is common for deported immigrants to return to the United States despite the threat of felony charges.
In another case, Juan Jose Beltran-Coronel's fourth trip to the border with immigration agents came after he was involved in a car crash in Kansas that killed his wife and exposed him as a human smuggler.
On 16 other occasions, Beltran was caught in the U.S. illegally and left on his own, court records show.
Serious criminal histories
Some illegal immigrants who sneak back into the U.S. are desperate to reunite with family members living here or to work, not to deal drugs or commit other crimes.
But others who return to Ohio have serious criminal histories. And some of them, now off the radar of law enforcement, continue to break the law once they're back.
Prosecutors charged more than 100 immigrants this year in federal court in Columbus with returning illegally after being deported.
The number of prosecutions in federal court here has jumped from 16 in 2006 to 112 in 2010.
Federal authorities say they hope that the prospect of federal prison time will deter immigrants from sneaking back into the country. >>MORE AT SOURCE<<
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