Mexican man arrested by ICE in Connecticut sentenced for illegally returning to US again

Juan Jose Carrasco Cardenas, 40, a Mexican man last living in Meriden, was sentenced in Hartford Thursday to six months in prison for illegally reentering the U.S.

HARTFORD, Conn. — A Mexican man was sentenced in Hartford Thursday to six months in prison for illegally returning to the United States after having previously been removed from the country multiple times.

Juan Jose Carrasco Cardenas, a 40-year-old who last lived in Meriden, received the sentence in federal court, according to a report from the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

Court documents and statements show that in January 2002, Carrasco Cardenas was found by U.S. Border Patrol personnel and issued a voluntary return to Mexico.

In May 2009, U.S. Border Patrol members located Carrasco Cardenas in Arizona after he illegally entered the U.S. again.

For this offense, he was charged in the District of Arizona with improper entry of an alien. Carrasco Cardenas received a five-day prison sentence and was issued a voluntary return to Mexico in June 2009.

However, in January 2018, Carrasco Cardenas was arrested in Kansas, where he was charged in Saline County with multiple offenses connected to marijuana sales.

Carrasco Cardenas was convicted in this instance of a state marijuana distribution offense and sentenced to 30 days in jail. He was removed again to Mexico in October 2019.

Then, this August, Carrasco Cardenas was discovered in Connecticut.

Prosecutors say that he was arrested in Meriden on Aug. 27 by members of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations team.

Carrasco Cardenas pleaded guilty to illegal reentry on Sept. 18. He has been detained since his arrest and will be removed to Mexico once more after finishing his prison term.

The case was investigated by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations team and is part of Operation Take Back America, a national effort to use U.S. Justice Department resources to curb the number of undocumented people entering the country.

Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.

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