RAPE CASE SUSPECT WAS OUSTED FROM U.S.
ICE says Andres GomezAvellaneda was removed in 2002, again in 2017.
A Boynton Beach man arrested Sunday in a rape case has been deported twice, according to federal agents.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an immigration detainment request for Andres Gomez-Avellaneda, 35, after his arrest in Boynton Beach. He was removed from the country once in 2002 and again in 2017, said Nestor Yglesias, spokesman for ICE and its Homeland Security Investigations.
Federal court records show Gomez-Avellaneda, a native of Mexico, was found to be in the U.S. illegally several times dating to the late 1990s.
In 1998, Gomez-Avellaneda was granted a voluntary departure from America, a legal alternative to deportation that allows the person a window of time to leave the U.S. and “avoid the adverse future consequences under the immigration laws attributable to having been ordered removed,” according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website.
It is unclear when Gomez-Avellaneda re-entered the U.S., but in April 2002 he was convicted of possession of an unauthorized ID card in Palm Beach County, and court records show he was deported by federal agents that July.
Gomez-Avellaneda was found back on U.S. soil more than a decade later, and in 2016 he was convicted in federal court of illegal re-entry after removal, a felony for which he was deported a second time after serving a yearlong prison sentence, according to court records.
On Sunday night, Gomez-Avellaneda was arrested on a charge of sexual battery by coercion and threat. A woman told Boynton Beach police that he raped her in a car Sunday morning, then threatened her throughout the day, according to the city’s arrest reports.
Gomez-Avellaneda is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail on a $1 million bond while awaiting his next hearing, on June 26, according to count y clerk records.
“ICE is focused on identifying, arresting and removing public safety threats, such as convicted criminal aliens and gang members, as well as individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws,” Yglesias said in a statement.