ICE deports 2 Utah child predators
Both convicted by state authorities on child sex abuse charges
SALT LAKE CITY — Two Utah felons separately convicted of sexual abuse of a child were deported Thursday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).
Andres Sanpedro-Jeronimo, 30, formerly of Magna and Angel Adrian Jauregui-Lopez, 24, formerly of Orem, were removed from the Salt Lake City area to Mexico after completing prison terms at correctional facilities in Utah.
In 2006, Sanpedro-Jeronimo and two other co-defendants pleaded guilty in Utah's 3rd District Court to committing the 2004 sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl. Prosecutors said the trio took turns sexually abusing the girl all the while documenting the crime on film. They were turned in to police by a store clerk when they had the film developed. Sanpedro-Jeronimo was sentenced to a term of one to 15 years in state prison. He also pleaded guilty to federal child pornography charges in connection to the photos. He was sentenced to 60 months, which was served consecutively with his state term.
Jauregui-Lopez was arrested in November 2011 by local police for sexually abusing a young girl. He was convicted in Utah's 4th District Court in 2012 of sexual abuse of a child and sentenced to a term of one to 15 years. Being illegally present in the U.S. and having been deported three times before, Jauregui-Lopez was charged and convicted of the federal crime of illegal reentry of a previously removed alien. He served 69 days in federal prison before being deported again Thursday.
"Every day ERO officers track criminal aliens serving prison terms in Utah to ensure they are immediately taken into ICE custody when they are released," said Thomas E. Feeley, acting field office director for ERO Salt Lake City. "These are individuals who have proven to be a danger to Utahans and it is ICE's top priority in the interest of public safety to effect their removal from the U.S."
ERO's Criminal Alien Program (CAP) identifies potentially deportable aliens incarcerated in jails and prisons throughout the United States. CAP officers interview and review inmates' biographical information. Although ERO initiates removal proceedings against criminal aliens through CAP, these individuals may remain in prison or jail to complete their criminal hearings or sentences. Under CAP, ERO uses a risk-based approach to make determinations about the detention and arrest of criminal aliens, with priority given to cases involving individuals deemed to be a security or public safety threat.
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