A Jamaican man who illegally re-entered the United States after being previously deported, pleaded guilty to the federal crime in Charleston, West Virginia on Thursday, and is to be deported again.
He is 53-year-old Edwin Hugh Douglas of a Kingston address, who has pleaded guilty to re-entry of a removed alien. He has been remanded to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation proceedings.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia has cited court documents and statements which indicate that Douglas has admitted that he was found in a Parkersburg municipal building by ICE agents on December 3, 2021.
The court documents said ICE agents identified Douglas during the course of an investigation.
“ICE agents spoke to Douglas, who admitted that he is a citizen of Jamaica and had been previously removed from the United States. Douglas had no identification documents permitting him legal status in the United States, and was arrested,” the attorney’s office added.
It said fingerprints matched Douglas to a November 9, 2009 administrative removal from the United States to Jamaica. Douglas was also convicted on June 17, 2004, of felony unlawful assault in Wood County Circuit Court.
The attorney’s office said Douglas never obtained the express consent of the Secretary of US Homeland Security to reapply for admission to the United States, nor did he seek to re-enter through other legal means.
On Thursday, the Jamaican was sentenced to the time he has served in custody since his arrest, by Senior United States District Judge David A Faber.
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Douglas was later remanded to the custody of ICE for deportation.
In a somewhat similar matter, on May 31 of this year, 60-year-old Veron Venita Goulbourne, another Jamaican national, was charged with being present in the United States after removal, and for an aggravated felony. If convicted, Goulbourne faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
According to court documents, Goulbourne was previously removed from the United States in March 2000, after she was convicted of an aggravated felony.
Court documents further show that on April 24, 2022, Goulbourne was a ticketed passenger on a flight from St Thomas in the Us Virgin Islands to Miami, Florida. When Goulbourne presented herself at the US Customs and Border Protection primary inspection point at Cyril E King Airport, officers determined that she had no legal status in the United States, having been previously removed.
