Man gets time served after immigration arrest
A man was sentenced Friday to time served in an immigration case.
Esteban Quino-Rosas, 45, pleaded guilty in October in the U.S. Northern District Court of Indiana to reentry of removed alien. He was also sentenced to one year on supervised release. He is expected to be deported.
He was arrested by the Lake County Sheriff’s Department during a Sept. 23 traffic stop near Schneider after he was found driving without a license.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Morgan wrote in court filings that he was deported previously in May 2012.
Defense lawyer Roxanne Mendez Johnson wrote her client grew up very poor in Mexico living on a farm with his parents and 10 siblings. Sometimes the family went “two to three days without eating” unless a neighbor stepped in.
He left school at age 10 to work, she wrote, making $3.50 per day. At school, classmates had mocked him for clothes made from “scraps” and homemade shoes made with “cardboard” and “plastic.”
After coming to the U.S., he worked in construction, she wrote.
Man gets prison time after latest immigration conviction
A federal judge opted to give a man more jail time Friday after he was caught again undocumented in the U.S.
Felipe Bautista-Ramirez, 29, pleaded guilty in August to illegal reentry of a removed alien.
He was arrested on July 29 in New Chicago, Indiana in a retail theft investigation on the 200 block of Lincoln Avenue, court records state. He has not been currently charged in Lake County courts. Filings show he has a pending theft case in Orlando.
His lawyer Adam Tavitas said in court Friday that his client came to the U.S. “trying to provide for his family” as a roofer. In America, he made up to $1,500 per week, compared to Mexico, where he made $250/week.
The U.S. economy was “significantly better,” Bautista-Ramirez said in court, as he apologized through a Spanish interpreter. He was deported twice in May and September 2024.
Both Tavitas and Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Lupa asked for time served.
However, Judge Phillip Simon opted to give him six months in jail, with one year on supervised release, saying Bautista-Ramirez repeatedly broke immigration law by returning back to the country, noting the costs to the court system.
He said Bautista-Ramirez already served about 4 ½ months in jail, so he would likely have a few weeks left before he is transferred to immigration enforcement.
“I’m sympathetic to people who are trying to better their lives,” Simon said. “You can’t keep doing it the way you’re doing it.”
