Feds: 16 indicted for illegal reentry after sweeping Florida immigration crackdown

The cases are being investigated by a panoply of state and federal law enforcement agencies.

• Sixteen individuals from Mexico and Central America have been indicted in Florida for illegally re-entering the U.S. after deportation.
• The individuals, aged 22 to 48, were apprehended across several counties in the state’s Panhandle.
• The indictment follows a large immigration raid at a Tallahassee construction site in May, though the connection remains unclear.

Sixteen people from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua have been indicted by a federal grand jury for illegal reentry into the United States after they were previously deported.

Fifteen men and one woman between the ages of 22 and 48 were detained in the Florida Panhandle, including Leon, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Madison and Escambia counties, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida.

Six of the 16 were detained in Tallahassee in May, but the press release does not provide details on whether they were detained at a massive immigration raid at a local construction site on May 29.

“An indictment is merely an allegation by a grand jury that a defendant has committed a violation of federal criminal law and is not evidence of guilt,” the news release says.

Questions were sent to U.S. Attorney Jack Heekin’s office, including about whether those indicted have a criminal record other than illegal reentry and whether the six detained in Tallahassee were picked up in the May 29 immigration raid.

“We are unable to provide anything else at the present time,” his spokesperson said.

But the press release also does not say if any of the 16 people indicted have a criminal record other than reentry into the United States after deportation.

Federal law says if a “removal” was after a conviction of three or more misdemeanors involving drugs, crimes against a person or both, or a felony, then the person could receive a maximum penalty of 10 years.

Moreover, the release does not say that penalty is an option for those indicted, only that the penalty for illegally reentering the United States after deportation is a maximum of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The cases are being investigated by a panoply of state and federal agencies: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, Enforcement and Removal Operations, the Florida Highway Patrol, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the United States Marshal’s Service, the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation division, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, according to the release.

Many of these were present at the immigration raid in Tallahassee, which took place at the construction site for Perla at the Enclave, a student housing complex developed by Zimmer Development Co. of North Carolina.

Federal immigration agents detained more than 100 people during the raid, and the warrant for the raid, filed in Tallahassee federal court and signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin A. Fitzpatrick, is still sealed.

(This story was updated to add new information.)

Ana Goñi-Lessan, state watchdog reporter for the USA TODAY Network – Florida, can be reached atagonilessan@gannett.com.