"Man denies 3d border violation" by Travis Andersen | Globe Staff, February 20, 2013
A man with a prior heroin trafficking arrest pleaded not guilty Tuesday in federal court in Boston to illegally reentering the United States for a third time.
Juan Miguel Laboy, who is in his late 30s, was ordered held without bail after entering his plea, according to court records and a spokeswoman for US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz.
According to an affidavit by Sean Rafferty, a special agent with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Laboy was deported to the Dominican Republic in April 2011, following his arrest in August 2010 on a charge of selling heroin.
The affidavit did not indicate where he was arrested on the drug charge or how that case was resolved. Officials with Immigration and Customs and Ortiz’s office had no information on that case on Tuesday.
Laboy’s current lawyer, Murat Erkan, said in an e-mail that the drug case was dismissed, though he could not immediately identify the jurisdiction in the matter.
“Although Mr. Laboy regrets that the United States government did not welcome him to this country, his presence here was motivated only by a desire to be with his loved ones who remain in this country,” Erkan wrote. “Sadly, his basic human desire for family unity with his US citizen children is at odds with the government’s present immigration policy.”
Sorry, after the terrorists we can only bring in illegals that will displace American workers.
Laboy first entered the United States in 2000, Stephen A. Lagana, Laboy’s lawyer in his 2011 illegal reentry case, said in a court filing. He was deported from Louisiana in 2006 and again from Boston in 2008, Rafferty wrote. Laboy reentered the country after each deportation, before the 2011 case occurred.
According to Rafferty’s affidavit, Laboy has previously given police at least three aliases, three Social Security numbers, and four dates of birth, and he obtained a driver’s license in Rhode Island in March 2010 under a false name. Records do not indicate who provided Laboy with the license.
On Jan. 16, Glen Coletti, a special agent with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told Rafferty that he had recently seen Laboy while he was conducting surveillance in Lawrence, and he was also seen at an apartment complex in Methuen, the affidavit states.
A property manager at the Methuen complex on Pleasant Valley Street later told Coletti that Laboy paid by money order for two apartments that were leased to four people, and he also paid for a garage, according to Rafferty.
A Customs duty agent received a call from an unidentified person on Jan. 22 stating that Laboy had reentered the country and was living in one of the Methuen apartments, said Rafferty. Erkan said, however, that Laboy denies renting multiple dwellings.
He said Laboy has indicated that he earned a living “buying cars, fixing them up, and reselling them.”
Rafferty’s affidavit does not indicate how authorities believe Laboy reentered the United States after his third deportation, and federal immigration officials had no details Tuesday.
Lagana wrote in a court filing that his client paid smugglers in 2000 to take him from Guatemala through Mexico to the US border, and that he reentered the country about five years later on “much the same path.” He entered the United States again in 2008 near Laredo, Texas, Lagana said.
He wrote that during Laboy’s first trip to the United States in 2000, he apparently walked alone through desert for two days before Border Patrol agents caught him in McAllen, Texas.
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