Deportation officers in November removed a repeat felon from the United States for the seventh time, highlighting the difficulties of preventing dangerous foreign nationals from sneaking into the country.
Julio Cesar Hernandez Funez, a 41-year-old Honduran national, was deported back to his home country on Nov. 16, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The illegal migrant, who has a lengthy rap sheet for drug trafficking and other crimes, had already been sent back to Honduras six prior times — once in 2006, 2013, 2014, twice in 2015 and again in 2016.
“Hernandez is a repeat offender who’s unlawfully entered the United States at least seven times, and he’s committed crimes against innocent people nearly every time,” ERO Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde said in a press release. “He’s been arrested in multiple states — including in Texas in 2001 — where Border Patrol agents found him hiding in the trunk of a car at a checkpoint.”
“He unlawfully entered the United States through Canada in February of this year, and our U.S. Customs and Border Protection partners arrested him in Derby Line, Vermont,” Hyde continued. “ERO Boston removed him last week.”
Deportation of Julio Cesar Hernandez Funez. Photo courtesy of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Hernandez has been convicted of five different felonies while in the U.S., according to ICE. The Honduran national’s rap sheet includes disorderly conduct in 2004, assault and battery and unauthorized use of a vehicle in 2005, entry into the U.S. without inspection in 2012 and driving under the influence in 2014.
He was convicted of illicit drug trafficking in 2022 by the Honduran government and sentenced to four-and-half years in prison, but he fled the country and attempted to enter the U.S. again through the U.S.-Canada border in Vermont, ICE confirmed.
Hernandez’s deportation marks one of the latest for ICE, which has conducted an increasing number of removals in the waning days of President Joe Biden’s White House tenure.
Deportation officers removed nearly 68,000 foreign nationals in the third quarter of fiscal year 2024, which spans from July to September, according to the latest data provided by the agency. These removal numbers marked roughly 1,000 more deportations from the second quarter and a nearly 70% increase from the same period in 2023.
There were over 200,000 removals of foreign nationals in the first three quarters of fiscal year 2024, according to the latest figures from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations statistics. This was a sharp uptick from the roughly 142,500 removals conducted in all of fiscal year 2023 and a dramatic increase from the 72,177 removals in fiscal year 2022 and the 59,011 removals that took place in fiscal year 2021.
The trend toward more removals is a major pivot from the early days of Biden’s presidency, who entered office and immediately attempted to place a moratorium on deportations for 100 days.
Any foreign national that is apprehended by Border Patrol more than once in a 12-month period is considered a “repeat crosser,” according to Customs and Border Protection. While reaching a peak during the COVID-19 pandemic, repeat encounters have since dipped to around 10% of all encounters by Border Patrol agents.
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