A violent criminal illegal immigrant previously deported six times from the U.S. was sent back to Honduras for a seventh time, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Tuesday.
ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations unit in Boston said it deported Julio Cesar Hernandez Funez, 41, on Nov. 18 to Honduras, where he was wanted on a drug trafficking charge. Hernandez, who also is known as Rodas and Flores Najera, unlawfully entered the U.S. in 2006, 2013, 2014, twice in 2015, once in 2016, and once this year.
ICE said he was convicted of five felonies in the U.S.: disorderly conduct in 2004, assault and battery and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in 2005, entry without inspection in 2012, and driving while intoxicated in 2014. In 2022, Honduran officials convicted him of illicit trafficking of drugs and sentenced him to four years and six months in prison. Hernandez fled the country before serving his sentence and attempted to enter the U.S. this year by crossing the U.S.-Canadian border into Vermont.
"Hernandez is a repeat offender who has unlawfully entered the United States at least seven times, and he's committed crimes against innocent people nearly every time," Patricia Hyde, acting field office director at ERO Boston, said in a news release. "He's been arrested in multiple states — including in Texas in 2001 — where Border Patrol agents found him hiding in the trunk of a car at a checkpoint.
"He unlawfully entered the United States through Canada in February of this year, and our U.S. Customs and Border Protection partners arrested him in Derby Line, Vermont. ERO Boston removed him last week."
An ERO Boston news release from February appears to describe Hernandez, but no name is used. The subject of the news release admitted during an immigration hearing that he was affiliated with the Sicarios New Yorkers-XV-18 branch of the 18th Street Gang.
The Department of Justice describes the 18th Street Gang as a "well-known and well-established international criminal organization and violent street gang with members and associates residing throughout New York state including Queens and Long Island, and elsewhere throughout the United States including Houston."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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