crime

WASHINGTON, D.C.– A media briefing by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) highlighted the issues of illegal aliens, legal immigration, and the economic, job, social, cultural, and political costs caused to average Americans. These factors have made these issues national topics of discussion during this presidential election.

...to attend a one-day seminar hosted by CIS. On the night before the seminar, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) spoke at a reception for the attendees at the National Press Club. He addressed re-shaping immigration policy so that it serves the interest of Americans.

Americans want to know who is coming into the country, and why, and they want to know how it is affecting their bottom line. They want to know how it is affecting the “America” they grew up in. Americans are also insecure about the intentions of those who come into our country and about the crimes they perpetrate.

Americans want to know if the refugees, asylees, and immigrants allowed in our country will “assimilate” to America, or if they will demand that our society conforms to their culture...

Salaries have not increased for years, job benefits are being cut, including health benefits. The amount of taxes U.S. citizens have to pay for social services benefits, and for educating the children of illegal aliens, matters to Americans in a day when wages, health benefits, and job opportunities are shrinking. The federal government is demanding that more and more immigrants be allowed in the country, and the government is increasing the number of visas to allow foreigners into the country to work.

Organizations like the Center for Immigration Studies is helping educate the public on these issues by educating those who have the ability to communicate to vast numbers of Americans.

The Center for Immigration Studies describes its organization as “an independent, non-partisan, non-profit, research organization.” They explain, “Since our founding in 1985, we have pursued a single mission – providing immigration policymakers, the academic community, news media, and concerned citizens with reliable information about the social, economic, environmental, security, and fiscal consequences of legal and illegal immigration into the United States.”

CIS says that the information collected by the Center over the past twenty-five years “has led many of our researchers to conclude that current, high levels of immigration are making it harder to achieve such important national objectives as better public schools, a cleaner environment, homeland security, and a living wage for every native-born and immigrant worker.”

The seminar covered research relating to the issues of the impact of immigration on Americans, immigration and public security, the present number of deportations, removals, and apprehensions, along with other immigration-related issues.

The website for the Center for Immigration Studies says that many of their researchers are “animated by a ‘low-immigration, pro-immigrant’ vision of an America that admits fewer immigrants but affords a warmer welcome for those who are admitted.

Lana Shadwick is a writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2.
  Read more about Americans First — National Think-Tank Briefs Media on Immigration's Impact on America

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Breitbart Texas team members travelled to the nation’s capital for an immigration briefing hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). Following a reception featuring Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), three Breitbart journalists agreed to an interview with Peter “DaTechGuy” Ingemi at The National Press Club.

Breitbart Texas Managing Director Brandon Darby spoke about his focus on border security and the criminal activities of cartels and other border groups...

Darby and Ingemi also discussed human smuggling and human trafficking....

Ingemi also interviewed Breitbart Texas Associate Editor Bob Price. Price discussed the economic, social, and political impact of illegal immigration...

In addition, Price discussed Texans’ concerns about Second Amendment rights in light of the recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He addressed the abuse of human smuggling victims at the hands of the drug cartels.

Ingemi also interviewed Breitbart News journalist Patrick Howley. As a reporter covering the 2016 presidential races, Howley discussed the evolution and rise of the populist movement within the Republican presidential primary. “I think Donald Trump has really harnessed this energy and harnessed this spirit of populism more than any politician I’ve ever seen.”

When Howley was being interviewed by the “Da Tech Guy” blogger, Ingemi said he was a “Cruz guy” but added that “the Orlando speech (by Trump) was a game changer.” The two discussed the President’s framing of the attack as a gun issue, down-playing it as a terrorist attack.

Following the reception where Senator Sessions discussed “Immigration in the National Interest,” this writer, along with Darby and Price, joined other Breitbart journalists in attending the CIS immigration briefing held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Friday.

CIS describes itself on its website as “an independent, non-partisan, non-profit, research organization.” They add, “Since our founding in 1985, we have pursued a single mission – providing immigration policymakers, the academic community, news media, and concerned citizens with reliable information about the social, economic, environmental, security, and fiscal consequences of legal and illegal immigration into the United States.”

DaTechGuyBlog.com has been on the list of the top 150 Conservative blog sites for over a year with an Alexa Rank in the top 100,000 worldwide and the top 21,000 nationally. Founded by Peter Ingemi in 2008, the blog site now hosts the “Magnificent Seven Bloggers, (Marathon Pundit, Linda Szugyi, Baldilocks, Fausta, Lady Liberty 1885, Pastor George Kelly & Steve Eggleston).” Follow Ingemi on Twitter @DaTechGuyblog.

Brandon Darby is the founder and managing director of Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter @brandondarby.

https://youtu.be/Z0a8-euwKHY

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and is a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.

https://youtu.be/TJO5I4XCFZg

Patrick Howley is a journalist for Breitbart News based in the Washington, D.C. bureau. Follow him on Twitter @PatrickHowleyDC.

https://youtu.be/K3de6honZDY

Lana Shadwick is a writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2. Read more about Breitbart Reporters Interviewed at Immigration Meeting in Washington D.C.

Almost a decade after he took an 11-year-old Keizer girl, who he claimed was his "girlfriend," to Mexico, a 28-year-old man was sentenced to 22 years and 11 months in prison.

In 2007, Raul Xalamihua-Espindola, then 19, fled to Zongolica, Veracruz, Mexico, with the girl. The crime took Xalamihua-Espindola and his victim across the United States, down to Mexico and eventually back to Oregon.

Xalamihua-Espindola pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree rape and appeared for sentencing before Marion County Circuit Court Judge David Leith on Monday.

At his sentencing, Xalamihua-Espindola spoke through two translators — one translating English to Spanish and the other translating Spanish to Nahuatl, a Central Mexican language also known as Aztec.

The victim and her family declined to attend the sentencing, but Deputy District AttorneyTobias Tingleaf said they were satisfied with the resolution reached. Tingleaf recommended three consecutive sentences, totaling to 25 years, for Xalamihua-Espindola's charges.

Members of the Keizer Police Department sat in the courtroom, finally witnessing a resolution to the years-long investigation.

"The detectives involved were relentless and did not give up," said Tingleaf, who was a law clerk in Marion County at the time of the girl's disappearance. "We are here today because of their work."

Keizer police began their investigation after the girl left a note for her parents saying she ran away with her boyfriend. The note said not to worry about the girl's well-being, but it didn't match her handwriting, according to an affidavit filed in August 2007.

The girl's friends told police she had a boyfriend named "Raul." Police determined a man of that name lived in the same apartment complex as the victim and identified him as Xalamihua-Espindola.

The girl was rescued and returned home a few months later, but Xalamihua-Espindola eluded capture until two years ago. He was eventually captured and held in a Mexican jail. In December 2015, he was extradited back to the United States.

It is often difficult to bring criminals back to the United States to face prosecution, Tingleaf said.

Keizer Police Deputy Chief Jeffrey Kuhns attended the trial along with several investigators involved in the case.

"The defendant’s capture in Mexico, extradition back to the United States and being sentenced to prison for the crimes he committed over nine years ago in 2007 is a great example of the investigators' resolve to hold this criminal accountable for his actions and bad choices," Kuhns said. "Not once did the Keizer Police Department or the many law enforcement partners who assisted stop the investigation or our pursuit of justice."

Xalamihua-Espindola, who initially pleaded not guilty, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree rape in May. One count of rape and one count of first-degree custodial interference were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Through his translators, he said he did not know what he was doing was a crime. In Mexico, young girls marrying older men is a common custom, he said.

"Are you saying that in your culture, taking an 11-year-old from her home without her parents permission to have sex with her is acceptable?" Leith asked him.

"Yes, all of that is acceptable," Xalamihua-Espindola replied.

He dropped to his knees and pleaded for forgiveness from Leith.

"It's not my role to dispense forgiveness," Leith said after hearing the defendant's appeal for mercy. "That would be for the victims of the crimes to decide."

Xalamihua-Espindola's attorney, John Storkel, argued for a shorter, concurrent sentence of eight years and four months, citing his client's lack of criminal history, his poor, humble background, reference letters, cultural differences and the two years he spent held in a Mexican jail.

Leith said he wanted the sentence to match the enormity of the crime.

"In our culture, these are among the most serious crimes that can be committed," he said, adding he did not believe abducting, kidnapping and raping children would be acceptable in any culture.

Leith sentenced Xalamihua-Espindola to eight years and four months for each of the first-degree rape counts. All but two years of the sentence will run consecutively. Upon his release, he is required to register as a sex offender.

First-degree rape is a Measure 11 offense and carries a mandatory minimum sentence of eight years and four months. Read more about Man who took 11-year-old to Mexico sentenced to 23 years

They were among the nation’s top priorities for deportation, criminals who were supposed to be sent back to their home countries. But instead they were released, one by one, in secret across the United States. Federal officials said that many of the criminals posed little threat to the public, but did little to verify whether that was true.

It wasn’t.

A Globe review of 323 criminals released in New England from 2008 to 2012 found that as many as 30 percent committed new offenses, including rape, attempted murder, and child molestation — a rate that is markedly higher than Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have suggested to Congress in the past.

The names of these criminals have never before been made public and are coming to light now only because the Globe sued the federal government for the list of criminals immigration authorities returned to neighborhoods across the country. A judge ordered the names released in 2013, and the Globe then undertook the work that the federal government didn’t, scouring court records to find out how many released criminals reoffended.

The Globe has also published, in conjunction with this story, a searchable database of the thousands of names that were disclosed to the news organization, so that crime victims, law enforcement officials, and managers of sex offender registries — who are often unaware of these releases — can find out if the criminals may still be in the United States.

The review does not indicate that immigrants are any more likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans — and in fact studies have shown that not to be the case. But the review reveals the damage inflicted on victims by criminals who were ordered to be deported when their sentences were complete, and were not, and it raises questions about how the government handled their cases.

The public rarely learns about ICE’s decisions to release criminals until something goes wrong — because immigration is the only law enforcement system in the United States that keeps such records secret.

ICE maintains that immigration records are generally private, and therefore exempt from disclosure under federal law. But others say the public should know who is making these decisions and why.

“There’s a serious question of who ICE represents. Who do they work for?” said Chester Fairlie, a lawyer for the mother of Casey Chadwick, a Connecticut woman murdered last year by a released criminal — a case that is intensifying calls for reform in ICE. “Public safety should trump any claim of privilege or confidentiality. It doesn’t come from statute. It doesn’t come from law. It comes from ICE deciding that that’s how it’s going to do things.”

Immigration officials have long insisted that the decision to release criminals — some of whom initially came to this country legally — is often out of their hands because the Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that the government cannot jail immigrants indefinitely. If immigration officials cannot deport them after six months, the court said, they should generally set them free.

“So to sit there and say that the proud women and men of law enforcement in ICE are choosing to release criminals is absolutely unforgivable,” ICE Director Sarah Saldaña told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in April, after lawmakers grilled her about releasing criminals in the United States. “And they do not go around trying to put criminals on the street.”

But often, that’s where they end up.

The Globe found that a Massachusetts man was supposed to be deported after he served jail time for bashing his ex-girlfriend on the head with a hammer — but ICE released him in October 2009. Three months later, he found the ex-girlfriend and stabbed her repeatedly. A Rhode Island man who had served prison time for a home invasion was also released from immigration detention in 2009; five years later, he was arrested for attacking his former girlfriend. In 2010, ICE released a man with a lengthy criminal record in Maine; a few months later he grabbed a man outside a 7-Eleven, held a knife to the man’s throat, and robbed him.

Some members of Congress appear to be losing patience with ICE’s argument that it is powerless to stop these releases. Critics say ICE could seek civil commitment for mentally ill immigrants who commit crimes, arrest reoffenders, and ask the Department of State to use diplomatic means to punish nations such as Haiti, China, and Jamaica when they refuse to take back their own citizens.

At the House oversight hearing on April 28, committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, said ICE’s decisions to release criminals who can’t be deported are leading to thousands of preventable crimes, according to ICE’s own statistics. The recent reoffenses include more than 130 murders or attempted murders since 2010, according to a letter ICE provided in February to Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

“What’s going on with Immigration and Customs Enforcement is one of the most infuriating things I think I’ve seen in this government yet,” Chaffetz said. To Saldaña, he added, after referring to crime victims in these cases, “How do you look those people in the eye?”

The Globe’s review was limited to the 323 immigrants released in New England between 2008 and 2012.

To calculate the recidivism rate in New England, the Globe scoured public police logs, Internet databases, and news media reports from Maine to southern Connecticut to identify the courts where criminal convictions occurred. Then the Globe traveled to or called the court houses to request records. The effort took three years, because most courts in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine do not have online databases where the public can search for records.

The public records in criminal courts made it possible to scrutinize an immigration system that rarely opens its files to the public — or even to US lawmakers.

For instance, the public did not know that ICE had struggled to deport Jean Jacques to Haiti in 2012, after he served time for attempted murder in Connecticut. ICE said in an e-mail that the agency repeatedly tried to deport Jacques, but had to release him when Haiti refused to accept him back to his home country. Then in 2015, he fatally stabbed 25-year-old Casey Chadwick of Norwich, Conn., and stuffed her body in a closet. A jury convicted him of murder in April.

Chadwick’s death outraged lawmakers, who said they got few answers from the federal immigration system about the handling of Jacques’ case. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal and two other Democrats called for an inquiry by Homeland Security’s inspector general.

“It is unacceptable that ICE failed to remove a convicted attempted murderer subject to a final deportation order — a measure that would have saved the life of Casey Chadwick,” Blumenthal and others said in a statement in January. “ICE’s responses thus far to our repeated inquiries into this case have been incomplete and unsatisfactory, and we hope that this independent inquiry will finally uncover the facts surrounding this tragedy, enabling reforms necessary to ensure that this never happens again.”

Clear answers are hard to come by in a system that aggressively keeps its records from the public.

For example, ICE had insisted in court records that reoffenders were “isolated examples.” To Congress, ICE officials suggested that reoffenders were rare, less than 10 percent.

But the reoffender rate among the immigrants on the Globe’s list is clearly much higher, at 30 percent.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors limiting immigration, said she believes the reoffender rate is probably even higher, given the Globe’s limited access to immigrants’ criminal histories. Some names, for instance, were too common to verify against court records. She said the government should track the rate itself.

“This is exactly what the government should be doing to evaluate the impact of its own policy, to make sure that it’s not causing harm,” she said. “They shouldn’t be doing this blindly without taking the time to evaluate the effects of the policy, the public safety consequences.”

Immigration officials acknowledge they have not calculated a recidivism rate, but say they are “working to provide this data.”

“ICE is committed to continually improving the agency’s ability to track and manage ever evolving agency-related data, but the agency does not have statistically reliable information on recidivism rates prior to FY13,” ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer said in an e-mail.

Immigration officials have also pointed out that they are increasingly focusing on deporting criminals, which they argue is likely to contribute to a lower recidivism rate.

Since 2008, ICE has deported hundreds of thousands of criminals. During the last fiscal year, 59 percent of the immigrants they deported had been convicted of at least one crime. And ICE officials say they are constantly pressing other countries to take back their citizens. Some of the released criminals were later taken back into custody and deported.

But ICE has also released tens of thousands of criminals in the United States — and in far greater numbers than they have disclosed to the Globe.

ICE told the news organization that the agency freed 12,941 criminals nationwide from 2008 to early 2014.

But Saldaña, the ICE director, told the House committee that the agency freed 36,007 criminals in fiscal 2013 alone. They are among 86,288 criminals they released from 2013 to fiscal 2015.

ICE officials said in an e-mail that the agency only provided the Globe the names of criminals they were forced to release under the Supreme Court decision; the additional releases were for other reasons. They did not elaborate, but ICE has told Congress it has also released criminals because of budget constraints, humanitarian reasons, or when an immigration judge ordered a release.

ICE has also suggested in court records that “many” of the criminals they released were traffic violators or other nonviolent offenders. But the news organization’s analysis shows that nationwide, immigration officials freed more convicted killers (201) than traffic violators (116) from 2008 to 2012.

ICE has also told Congress, as recently as May, that just 23 nations were failing to cooperate with deportations.

But ICE records show that as recently as 2016, there were about 140 nations that refused to take back at least some of their citizens, including Armenia, the Bahamas, St. Lucia, and many others.

In New England, about a quarter of the criminals released from 2008 to 2012 were previously convicted of rape, murder, or other violent crimes, based on the criminal histories that ICE provided to the Globe.

Court records show that, for a variety of reasons, some released criminals went on to enjoy privileges that otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants usually can’t enjoy, such as obtaining driver’s licenses. Five released criminals were even registered to vote in Massachusetts, putting them in the jury pool. State officials said none had ever voted, and they removed them from the list after being asked about them.

One released criminal thwarted his own deportation three times by kicking and screaming on an airplane bound for his homeland, prompting the pilot to throw him off while they were still on the ground, according to federal court records.

But more troubling are the criminals who left a string of new victims once immigration officials set them free.

In January 2010, a Framingham woman walked out of a Stop & Shop and saw her ex-boyfriend, Oscoe Housen — the same man who had served time for attacking her with a hammer. He was supposed to have been deported to Jamaica, but ICE released him instead.

Early the next morning, Housen broke into the woman’s home and stabbed her and a friend with a large knife as her children slept nearby. Police said they discovered a gruesome scene — the man was bleeding heavily and the woman asked “if she was going to die.” She lived, and Housen, 64, is serving up to 12 years in prison.

ICE also released Nhoeuth Nhim, one of several masked gang members who led a frightening home invasion and robbery in 2000 in Cranston, R.I. The gang used duct tape to bind, gag, and blindfold a family of five, including a 6-year-old. After robbing them of money and jewelry, the gang set a fire in the basement and dragged the family into the flames. The family, hard-working immigrants from Cambodia, all escaped.

After serving prison time, Nhim was supposed to face deportation, but instead ICE released him in 2009 and he returned to Rhode Island, where he later was charged with sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend. He pleaded no contest to felony assault and is in prison.

In 2009, ICE released Bo Kang Me, a 48-year-old Cambodian immigrant with a long criminal record. He was soon rearrested for new crimes and probation violations. But he was free in 2013 when a Providence school let him pick up a child from school, even though he was not authorized to do so. He molested the child and is serving prison time for second-degree child molestation.

ICE had no comment on the cases, but said, “The decisions made in every case are made with the best available information ICE is able to obtain at the time.”

On April 25, ICE unexpectedly sent the Globe a new list of released criminals that showed that 83 percent of the criminals released nationwide from 2012 to 2016 are convicted felons.

Critics say it’s likely that ICE will continue to release serious criminals in the future, but unless the agency changes its privacy policies, there is no guarantee that the public will ever know.

Timeline of the Globe’s lawsuit

It’s nearly a five-year saga.

Search the Globe’s database of criminals

ICE: A snapshot of released criminals who were supposed to be deported

On April 25, Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided an updated look at the criminals it released in the United States from 2012 to February because the agency was unable to deport them. Typically in these cases, foreign countries refuse to repatriate their citizens. ICE says they are forced to release them in the United States because the Supreme Court has barred the agency from jailing immigrants indefinitely. These are the homelands of the criminals released during this period.

SOURCE: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement   Patrick Garvin/GLOBE STAFF

Jeremy C. Fox of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Maria Sacchetti can be reached at maria.sacchetti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @mariasacchetti. Read more about Criminal immigrants reoffend at higher rates than ICE has suggested

An undocumented immigrant was sentenced to federal prison for distributing more than 22 pounds of heroin and methamphetamine found last year during a Central Point traffic stop.

Miguel Angel Reyna-Ramos, 38, was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison Thursday in U.S. District Court in Eugene. He pleaded guilty Jan. 21 to charges of possessing a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

On May 18, 2015, Oregon State Police troopers caught Reyna-Ramos with close to 8 kilograms of methamphetamine and 2 kilograms of heroin in the luggage compartment of the gray Mercury Mountaineer SUV he was driving, which they stopped near Exit 35 on northbound Interstate 5 for a traffic violation. According to a release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice, Reyna-Ramos originally declined a request to search the vehicle, but troopers later obtained a search warrant after a narcotics detection dog alerted them to drugs found in the back of the vehicle.

Court documents filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, where the case was originally filed, showed that police believed Reyna-Ramos was acting suspiciously at the time of the traffic stop. He possessed no driver's license, the vehicle was not registered to him and he had multiple cellphones in the vehicle.

Reyna-Ramos later told Medford DEA agents that he was working for a cartel based in Mexico. He told agents he'd been paid between $200 and $300 before to drive cars from his home in Tulare, Calif., to drop-off points near Tacoma, Wash. He told investigators he was instructed by a third party to pick up the SUV from a motel parking lot in Ontario, Calif., and drive to Spanaway, Wash., where he expected to be paid $1,000.

U.S. District Judge Michael McShane said he considered Reyna-Ramos' lack of criminal history in determining the sentence. Because Reyna-Ramos is undocumented, he will likely be deported upon completion of his sentence, the release says.

Reach reporter Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or nmorgan@mailtribune.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MTCrimeBeat. Read more about Man sentenced to 6 years for trafficking drugs

The last of four men who attacked an inmate in federal prison with punches to the back of his head, kicks to his back and strikes with a chair was sentenced Wednesday to more than three years in custody.

The victim, identified in court papers only as E.I., suffered a broken jaw, a broken nose and a brain hemorrhage and was hospitalized at Salem Hospital for 2 ½ weeks.

Ten days after the attack, the victim told FBI agents he didn't remember anything about the assault and had no idea who hurt him. But he did recall that he had upset some of the "Southsiders'' when he complained they were trying to act like they wanted to be black, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hannah Horsley wrote in a sentencing memo.

According to court records, the assault occurred a year ago, the morning of May 31 in a common area of the Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan.

The victim was sitting at a table watching TV when one of the defendants, Jose Carlos Acosta Jr., gave a hand signal. With that, Acosta, Omar Mendoza, Javier Rodriguez Tijerina Jr. and Victor Alas-Felix converged on the victim. Mendoza struck E.I. in the back of the head with a closed fist, knocking him off his chair. The three others then stomped and kicked him and punched him while he was on the floor. E.I. appeared to be unconscious after the attack and stayed on the floor for a few minutes before he came to.

When he stood and tried to return to his cell, he was attacked a second time. Alas-Felix kicked him hard in the back and Acosta struck E.I. with a plastic chair.

Alas-Felix, 40, ditched his bloody shoes in a trash can near his cell, and they were later recovered.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Chief Justice Michael W. Mosman sentenced Alas-Felix to three years and four months in prison.

Assistant federal public defender Thomas Hester told the court that Alas-Felix had tried to drop out of the Surenos gang, but once the assault was ordered, he feared that if he didn't participate, his life would be threatened as well.

"He isn't saying he should not be punished,''  Hester added.

....Alas-Felix was serving a sentence for illegally entering the United States from Mexico and has other weapons, drugs and burglary convictions.

Alas-Felix, his arms and neck covered in tattoos, is "rather conspicuous,'' ...

Hester argued for a 30-month sentence, while the federal prosecutor urged a 46-month sentence to send a clear message that gang assaults in prison will be seriously punished...

The judge said he was convinced that Alas-Felix had tried to remove himself from gang life behind bars, but Mosman didn't cut him any slack.

"I'm unwilling to judge you by the rules of prison life. It just turns everything upside down,'' Mosman said. "I'm not judging you by the rules of your criminal organization. I'm judging you by the standards of this country where we live.''

The judge asked that Alas-Felix be placed in a federal prison outside of the Western or Southwestern regions of the country and be placed in some type of special housing to isolate him from gang influences.

Alas-Felix's co-defendant Tijerina previously was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison; Acosta to three years and four months; and Mendoza to two years and two months for the assault. The four also have been ordered to pay a total of $58,811 in restitution to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which paid for the victim's medical expenses.

After serving his sentence, Alas-Felix will be deported to Mexico. Read more about Gang-related assault in federal prison sends four men back to serve more time

A 27-year-old man who slashed his friend's throat when he changed the radio station was sentenced Thursday to nearly six years in prison.

Santos Kuyam had been drinking in the car with three friends last Nov. 7 near Northeast 61st Avenue and Lombard Street. Kuyam told Mario Salazar-Castillo not to change the radio station.

When Salazar-Castillo did anyway, Kuyam became so angry that he cut a 6-inch-long wound into Salazar-Castillo's throat, investigators say.

Two friends who were in the car later told police that the attack was unprovoked. Kuyam had been sitting in the back seat and Salazar-Castillo was in the front passenger seat.

Salazar-Castillo has made a remarkable recovery.

"Sounds like he was really lucky," said prosecutor Jeff Auxier, who spoke to medical staff who treated Salazar-Castillo. "It was one of those cases -- just a few millimeters to the left or right and it would have been a different outcome."

Police arrested Kuyam at the Cracker Box Tavern after receiving a report that he was there. A bar patron told police that Kuyam had been saying: "I have to ... I have to ... I have to ... I cut my friend he say I would die," according to a probable cause affidavit....

He was sentenced in Multnomah County Circuit Court to five years and 10 months in prison.

Kuyam told authorities at the time of his arrest that he was going to start a new job as a construction worker the next day. Kuyam was born in Mexico and has been in the United States for about eight years. He likely faces deportation when his prison sentence is over. Read more about Man who slashed friend's throat because he changed radio station gets nearly 6 years in prison