Previously Removed Felon Deported Again to Honduras

A 30-year-old Honduran national, who recently served federal prison time for felony re-entry after deportation, was removed to his native country Wednesday, June 27, 2012, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers.

Marcos Mejia-Rosales was repatriated to Honduras aboard a removal flight chartered by ICE's Air Operations Unit. Mejia-Rosales was discovered in the King County Jail in November 2010 by Seattle ERO officers assigned to the Criminal Alien Program (CAP). At that time, Mejia-Rosales was being held for solicitation to commit delivery of cocaine. He was later convicted of those charges and sentenced to nine months in jail. In addition to the drug offense, records checks revealed Mejia-Rosales had been previously deported four times and had a lengthy felony criminal record.

ERO presented his case to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which filed charges against Mejia-Rosales for felony re-entry after deportation. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in November 2011 to 13 months in prison.

"As this case shows, there will be serious consequences for those who show no respect for our laws or our borders," said Bryan Wilcox, acting field office director for ERO Seattle. "By embedding ERO officers in local jails and using tools like Secure Communities, ICE is locating and deporting more criminal aliens than ever before and our communities are safer as a result."

Mejia-Rosales served his sentence for felony re-entry at the Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan, Ore. ERO Portland officers took him into custody June 7 and transported him to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, where he was detained until his deportation this week.

Through the CAP, ERO seeks to identify potentially deportable aliens incarcerated in jails and prisons throughout the United States. This is accomplished through interviews and reviews of inmates' biographical information. Although ERO initiates removal proceedings against criminal aliens through the CAP, these individuals may remain in prison or jail to complete criminal hearings or sentences. Under the CAP, ERO uses a risk-based approach to make determinations about the detention and arrest of criminal aliens, with priority given to cases involving individuals deemed to be a security or public safety threat.

2013 H-1B Petitions Reaches Statutory Cap

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced June 12, 2012 that it has received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions to reach the statutory cap of 65,000 for fiscal year (FY) 2013. Yesterday, June 11, 2012, was the final receipt date for new H-1B specialty occupation petitions requesting an employment start date in FY 2013.

USCIS will consider properly filed cases as received on the date that USCIS physically receives the petition; not the date that the petition was postmarked. USCIS will reject cap-subject petitions for new H-1B specialty occupation workers if they arrive after June 11, 2012 and seek an employment start date in FY 2013.

As of June 7, 2012, USCIS already received more than 20,000 H-1B petitions filed on behalf of persons exempt from the cap under the ‘advanced degree’ exemption. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap.

In addition, petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap will not be counted toward the FY 2013 H-1B cap.  As such, USCIS will continue to accept and process these petitions to:

               extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the U.S.;

               change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers;

               allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and

               allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.

U.S. businesses use the H-1 B program to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialized fields such as scientists, engineers or computer programmers.