Supreme Court kicks a 73 year old man out of the USA : "Sometimes I climb the border fence, sometimes I walk for days across the desert" - "I have to come to see my 10 grown children, along with 46 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren — all living in the USA

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NECN.COM
US Supreme Court denies Kansas immigrant's appeal
October 15, 2011

US Supreme Court denies Kansas immigrant's appeal


Some excerpts :

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — An illegal immigrant sentenced to more than a decade in prison for repeatedly returning to the United States following deportation exhausted his appeals this week when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a Kansas case that now sets the standard in 10th Circuit federal district courts for what jurors must consider in deliberating criminal immigration verdicts.

Eusebio Sierra-Ledesma, a 73-year-old Mexican immigrant, was sentenced last year to a total of 127 months in prison for repeated illegal re-entry so flagrant that U.S. District Judge Monti Belot told him that he needed to "impress upon you the seriousness of your crime."

Sierra-Ledesma had been in immigration custody 19 times and had used more than 40 aliases, 10 false dates of birth and seven false Social Security numbers. His criminal record dating to 1964 included illicit drug sales, weapons crimes and immigration offenses.

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Sierra-Ledesma's defense attorney did not respond to an email seeking comment. But Sierra-Ledesma told The Associated Press last year in a jailhouse phone call that he keeps returning to the United States to look for work and to see his family.

He legally entered the country as a farm worker in 1958 and built a life here before losing his legal residency in 1973, he said. He has 10 grown children from two marriages, along with 46 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren — all living in the United States.

"I have to come see them — everyone is here," Sierra-Ledesma said in Spanish.

Sometime he climbs the border fence to get into the United States, sometimes he walks for days across the desert, he said.
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Sierra-Ledesma told the AP he does not know whether he will again return this time after he is released from prison and deported again.

"Perhaps I may not come," he said. "It is very hard being in prison."

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