4-time deportee sentenced to 72 months for illegal re-entry

MEDFORD, Ore. – A Mexican man previously deported four times was sentenced Wednesday to 72 months in federal prison for re-entering the U.S. after deportation, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Oregon State Police.

ERO officers encountered Julio Gonzalez-Zamudio, 44, in January 2014 following his arrest by Oregon State Police. According to court documents, Gonzalez-Zamudio was a passenger in a vehicle police stopped on Interstate 5 in Douglas County. Gonzalez-Zamudio fled on foot but state troopers pursued him and took him into custody. A search of the vehicle resulted in the seizure of more than two-and-a-half pounds of methamphetamine.

Records checks by ERO officers found Gonzalez-Zamudio has been deported four times, the last time in November 2011. During the various times he has been in the United States, Gonzalez-Zamudio repeatedly committed various drug offenses and crimes of violence including residential burglaries and menacing with a firearm. In 2006, following his release after serving a 65-month sentence in state prison sentence, he was again deported. In 2010, he was found in the United States in the Washington County (Oregon) jail and was later prosecuted and convicted of illegal re-entry in in Portland federal court. He received the lower 27-month fast-track sentence and was warned about not illegally returning again to the United States. At the time of his 2014 arrest, Gonzalez-Zamudio was on supervised release for this conviction.

Gonzalez-Zamudio was sentenced to 57 months for his current illegal re-entry conviction and 15 months for violating the terms and conditions of his release from custody in 2011, both sentences will be served consecutively.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon prosecuted the case.