A twice-deported illegal alien from Mexico with a prior criminal history was just convicted and sentenced for unlawfully re-entering the country – but only after he’d managed to rape a woman first.
To make matters worse, he only got 30 months in prison for the assault.
According to U.S. immigration officials, Rogelio Mendez, 38, was initially deported from the United States in 2004 after serving two years in a New York State prison for illegally possessing a loaded firearm in Queens. He then illegally re-entered the United States in 2004 and was again deported in 2009.
Mendez managed to come back to the U.S. – again illegally – sometime in 2010, where he eventually found a seasonal job at a restaurant in Southampton, New York. While employed there, he reportedly raped a woman at the home he shared with a few of his co-workers. According to the woman, identified as Ms. Doe in court proceedings, she was visiting the home and had fallen asleep, only to wake up and find that Mendez, who she claimed she'd never met, was sexually assaulting her. After managing to push him off, the woman said she fled to another room where Mendez tried to continue the assault. Doe said she was eventually able to push past him and escape, but testified in court that the incident has left her permanently traumatized.
Mendez was arrested and pleaded guilty to third-degree rape in February 2017 and was sentenced to 30 months – less than three years – in prison.
U.S. immigration officials said Mendez was also sentenced on Oct. 31 to an additional 57 months in federal prison for illegally re-entering the country. After spending the next 7.5 years behind bars courtesy of the American taxpayer, he’ll likely be deported a third time.