ICE Arrests Twice-Deported Illegal Alien With Wife-Cruelty and Cop-Assault Convictions in California

He was deported in 2002. He came back. He was deported again in 2014. He came back again. Now ICE has him for a third time, and this time he has a rap sheet that includes cruelty toward his wife and assaulting a police officer.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Serferino Trinidad Ortega, a Mexican national, in a targeted operation on Oct. 18, according to ICE documents obtained by the Daily Caller. ICE announced the arrest itself on Thursday: "Thanks to @POTUS Trump's secure border, he won't be coming back!"

The record

According to the ICE documents, Ortega's convictions include:

Two counts of cruelty toward his wife. Two counts of driving under the influence. Battery. Assaulting a police officer. Obstructing a police officer.

ICE Assistant Director for Public Affairs Micah Bock put it simply to the Caller: "Any illegal alien ICE finds will be deported. ICE is prioritizing Americans' safety, and that starts with removing these violent criminals from our communities."

Three illegal entries

The documents lay out a pattern. Ortega first entered the country illegally and was ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2002. He was deported that October, then slipped back in at an unknown date and place. He was deported a second time in August 2014, and then crossed illegally a third time.

Each of those trips is its own crime. Entering the U.S. without inspection is a federal offense under 8 U.S.C. § 1325. Coming back after being deported is a felony under 8 U.S.C. § 1326, punishable by up to two years in prison, and up to 10 or 20 years for people removed after certain criminal convictions. In other words, before any of the drunk driving or the cop assault, his very presence here was already a crime, three times over.

The arrest

Officers tried to take Ortega into custody on Oct. 18, but he refused several lawful commands and tried to avoid arrest by barricading himself underneath his vehicle, the documents say. Video of the struggle in Garden Grove, Calif., spread on social media, Univision reported, and his daughter told the network he was on his way to help with a family birthday party. She said he first came to the U.S. in 1992.

After he was in custody, Ortega complained of head pain and was taken to a hospital. Once doctors cleared him, he was turned over to ICE.

What happens next

Because he was already deported, Ortega doesn't get to start over in immigration court. Federal law lets ICE simply reinstate his old removal order, which is what the agency is doing now, the Caller reported. Univision said he is being held at the Adelanto detention center in California.

Think of it like a ticket that was already written. The judge ruled back in 2002. ICE doesn't need a new trial to enforce it. It just needs to find him, and now it has.

Garden Grove sits in Orange County, inside a state whose sanctuary law limits how much local police can help federal immigration agents. ICE found him anyway.