The driver of a van that was packed with people who paid $1,500 to $2,500 to be smuggled into the United States was sentenced to 21 months in prison today by U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock.
Babcock, the chief judge for the U.S. District Court in Denver, issued a stern warning to Jorge Apolinar Bernal-Estrada, 28.
“If you are deported, as you probably will be, you shall not re-enter illegally,” the judge said. “You will be tempted to come back because this country provides work and money to send back to your family in Mexico. I don’t want you to spend the best part of your life in prison.”
Bernal-Estrada could face up to 20 years in prison if he re-enters the country illegally, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Mackey.
Bernal-Estrada was driving the van on Interstate 70 in Kit Carson County on March 14 when it spun out of control on an icy stretch of highway, went off the interstate and overturned.
The 13 passengers said they had paid someone to get them out of Mexico to Phoenix, where they were hiding in a safehouse until they were picked up by Bernal-Estrada.
The occupants, who were taken to the hospital in Burlington, identified Bernal-Estrada as the driver.
One passenger, Imelda Martinez, suffered back injuries that required hospitalization.
Bernal-Estrada, who has been in the United States illegally for 10 years, will be deported to Mexico as soon as he completes the prison term, said Mackey. Bernal-Estrada pleaded guilty to transportation of illegal immigrants.
Bernal-Estrada told the judge he was sorry and that this was the first time he had this kind of problem. He said he was resigned to do his time and then would go back to Mexico.
He told Babcock that he has a wife and child in Mexico. He said his wife, a school teacher, is expecting their second child.
Documents found in the van showed that the defendant had driven the van from the western United States to Florida and back to Arizona where the passengers were picked up. A receipt showed the van was in Phoenix shortly after midnight on March 12.
Edward Pluss, Bernal-Estrada’s lawyer, said there is a whole network of “coyotes,” people who drive illegal immigrants across the United States. They pick up Mexicans smuggled across the border to safe-houses in Arizona.
“But it is not really clear that my client was in the habit of doing that and it was not clear he was receiving money or did this more than once,” Pluss said.
Pluss said that Bernal-Estrada had spent most of his time in Pennsylvania.
Mackey said that there is practically no chance the United States would permit Bernal-Estrada back into the country legally, given the fact he was ferrying illegal immigrants.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
