Mexican National Sentenced for Illegal Re-Entry

United States District Court courtroom on Oahu. U.S. General Services Administration photo.

A United States District Court judge sentenced a Mexican national to over two years in prison for illegally re-entering the United States multiple times within the last two years.

Palemon Alexander Delatorre, 37, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi on Feb. 16. She sentenced him to 16 months in prison and three years of supervised release for re-entering the country without permission. After that ruling, Kobayashi added 12 more months of jail time in a previous case where Delatorre had also re-entered the county illegally and was caught in Kona.

Delatorre’s legal issues in Hawai’i began in February of 2014, when he was arrested for contempt and traffic-related issues in Kona by Hawai’i Police Department officers. He was allowed to voluntarily leave the country, but was found again in Kona two months later. He was then deported.

One month later, he was caught again illegally entering the United States and was sentenced to jail time. He served three-and-a-half months in prison and was again deported to Mexico in September of 2014. Six months later, in March of 2015, he was caught on the Big Island again, and charged with illegal re-entry and violating terms of a supervised release.

HPD assisted in the investigation of the case, which was done by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.