NYCwife
01-07-2008, 04:10 PM
http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_7883577
U.S. soldier's undocumented father returns home
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 01/04/2008 03:47:45 PM MST
A Mexican man who crossed the border illegally to see his son, a U.S. soldier, before the young man left for Afghanistan, was sentenced to time served today in federal court in El Paso.
"I recognize that I made a mistake when I crossed to see my son who was leaving for Afghanistan," Marcos Antonio Hernandez Gonzalez, 40, shackled, told U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone.
Judge Cardone said she understood the unusual circumstances but that the law still applied.
She sentenced Hernandez to the four months he already served in jail since his arrest. Prosecutors did not object and even asked for a fine to be waived. Hernandez, who did not have a criminal past according to his lawyer, was facing zero to six months in prison for illegal reentry.
According to court documents, Hernandez was caught Aug. 16 by a Border Patrol agent who followed his footprints seven miles east of the Zaragoza Bridge. Hernandez was traveling with another man and both migrants were muddy from the knees down, documents showed. Hernandez had been previously removed from the United States in 2003 at Nogales, Ariz.
Rita Rodriguez, the public defender who represented Hernandez at his sentencing, told Judge Cardone that Hernandez did not intend on living in the United States and had in fact made a new life for himself in Mexico. He just wanted to say goodbye to his son, she said.
Rodriguez said she was not allowed to give out more details about the family's story because she was not Hernandez's assigned lawyer.
"What's sad is that this type of cases used to be treated as misdemeanors but now we treat them as felonies," she said.
Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com, 546-6131.
U.S. soldier's undocumented father returns home
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 01/04/2008 03:47:45 PM MST
A Mexican man who crossed the border illegally to see his son, a U.S. soldier, before the young man left for Afghanistan, was sentenced to time served today in federal court in El Paso.
"I recognize that I made a mistake when I crossed to see my son who was leaving for Afghanistan," Marcos Antonio Hernandez Gonzalez, 40, shackled, told U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone.
Judge Cardone said she understood the unusual circumstances but that the law still applied.
She sentenced Hernandez to the four months he already served in jail since his arrest. Prosecutors did not object and even asked for a fine to be waived. Hernandez, who did not have a criminal past according to his lawyer, was facing zero to six months in prison for illegal reentry.
According to court documents, Hernandez was caught Aug. 16 by a Border Patrol agent who followed his footprints seven miles east of the Zaragoza Bridge. Hernandez was traveling with another man and both migrants were muddy from the knees down, documents showed. Hernandez had been previously removed from the United States in 2003 at Nogales, Ariz.
Rita Rodriguez, the public defender who represented Hernandez at his sentencing, told Judge Cardone that Hernandez did not intend on living in the United States and had in fact made a new life for himself in Mexico. He just wanted to say goodbye to his son, she said.
Rodriguez said she was not allowed to give out more details about the family's story because she was not Hernandez's assigned lawyer.
"What's sad is that this type of cases used to be treated as misdemeanors but now we treat them as felonies," she said.
Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com, 546-6131.