Expelled three times
OKLAHOMA CITY – A Hispanic man previously deported three times from the U.S. has been charged with unauthorized entry yet again.
Jose Alfredo Munoz Castellon, 33, was indicted earlier this month in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma on a felony complaint of illegal re-entry. Court records claim he was found to be in Oklahoma on Feb. 16, 2020, after having been previously deported from the U.S. on Dec. 7, 2012; on Dec. 3, 2013; and on Dec. 27, 2018. In each instance he allegedly was “found to be knowingly in the United States without having obtained the consent of the Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security to reapply for admission...”
If convicted, Munoz Castellon could be imprisoned for up to 20 years and/or fined $250,000, court documents state. He was confined in the Patrick E. Moore Detention Center at Okmulgee, court records show. Another alien facing a similar federal charge is Heriberto Morales-Escobar, 46. He was arrested in Oklahoma’s Western District on Jan. 23, 2020, after having been previously deported from the U.S. on Dec. 26, 2009. He was being held in the Kay County Detention Center at Newkirk.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Troester, in Oklahoma City, said that aliens facing criminal charges brought by federal prosecutors typically are not first-timers. “If an alien is arrested for a first-time illegal entry, and hasn’t committed any other offense, ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) deports them administratively,” he said. In Fiscal Year 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma prosecuted 84 people for illegal re-entry into the United States, records reflect. From Oct. 1, 2019, through March 8, 2020, the office brought criminal charges against 33 illegal aliens for unauthorized re-entry, Troester said. “We’ve had people who’ve been deported into the double digits,” he added.