DA supports deportation initiative for repeat offenders

District Attorney Jeff Hunt credits a new local-federal cooperative law enforcement program with helping prosecutors deport a repeat offender who had been convicted of sexually assaulting a child.

Hunt said the 287(g) program enables state and federal law enforcement authorities to work together so that convicted felons are sent out of the country. Henderson County sheriff’s deputies work with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify and begin the process of deporting felons.

“In 2002, my office sought and obtained an indictment of taking indecent liberties with a child against Alonso Flores Salas in Henderson County,” Hunt said in a news release. “Later that year, Mr. Salas pleaded guilty in Henderson County Superior Court to the charge and was sentenced to between a year and four months and a year and eight months in the North Carolina Department of Corrections, and three years supervised probation thereafter.”

Two years later, Salas pleaded guilty to a felony charge of failing to register as a sex offender, Hunt said. Last month he was arrested and charged with driving while impaired in Henderson County.

“On Aug. 4, Mr. Salas pleaded guilty to driving while impaired,” Hunt said. “Upon his sentencing in Henderson County, Mr. Salas, a twice convicted felon and sex offender, was turned over to federal authorities to face charges.”

Salas was indicted in the U.S. District Court in the Western District of North Carolina for reentering the country after being removed or deported subsequent to a conviction of an aggravated felony.

“There are portions of Mr. Salas’ history which remain unclear,” Hunt said. “However, even after two felony convictions, he was again in our country driving while impaired.”