Jackson Man Could Be Deported For The Eighth Time If Convicted

Federal deportation authorities Monday arrested a Mexican national in Teton County, Wyoming, who has been removed from the United States seven times in the past 20 years, court documents say.

Jorge Perez-Romero could be removed from the country an eighth time, if he's convicted of illegal reentry,  with which Wyoming Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Cook charged him Friday. 

U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott Klosterman on Friday granted an arrest warrant for Jorge Perez-Romero. On Monday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation officer Austin Jones arrested Perez- Romero at the Teton County Sheriff’s Office, according to a warrant return filed in the man’s federal court case.

An affidavit by Jones says the Wyoming Highway Patrol arrested Perez-Romero on April 6 for driving with a suspended or canceled license, a traffic lane violation and a windshield wiper violation.

Perez-Romero was booked into the Teton County Detention Center that day, says the affidavit.

Also that same day, the Teton County Sheriff’s Office gave ICE a booking sheet indicating Perez-Romero is a Mexican national, wrote Jones.

The officer wrote that authorities ran Perez-Romero’s fingerprints and found those were associated with a specific “alien” file. That alien file shows that Perez-Romero was convicted for shoplifting in Teton County on Nov. 4, 1999, then officially removed from the country to Mexico six years later, on June 30, 2005, the affidavit alleges.

Perez-Romero was removed to Mexico again two months later on Aug. 15, 2005, after a “voluntary return,” says the document.

The affidavit says the records indicate he was formally removed again July 19, 2011, then on Aug. 4, 2011; then on July 17, 2013; on July 23, 2013 — then again Aug. 17, 2013.

He’s now charged with illegal reentry, which is a federal felony punishable by up to two years in prison and $250,000 in fines. It’s also an offense for which a person can be deported.

Perez-Romero is set for a Wednesday hearing in Casper’s U.S. District Court for Wyoming.

Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.