The Brownsville Herald
June 3 2005 — Jorge Enrique Vasquez Carrasco didn’t expect jail time or to be deported when he got caught illegally entering the United States.
The 18-year-old Honduran man expected the same treatment as thousands of other undocumented immigrants who have been set free after receiving a notice to appear in court.
According to federal figures, almost 88 percent of immigrants who receive those notices never appear in court and stay illegally in the United States.
But U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio made a statement Thursday to Vasquez and six other Central Americans who were caught this week crossing the Rio Grande near Brownsville.
“I want you to tell all your friends in Honduras that if they come through Brownsville, Texas, they will not be paroled into the system and they will be put in jail and deported,” Recio told Vasquez in open court as he handed him a jail sentence that could keep him here until space opens at an immigration facility and he could be deported.
Posted by Suzanne at June 3, 2005