An illegal immigrant from El Salvador who was previously deported from the United States on 10 separate occasions and convicted of more than a dozen serious crimes was sentenced Thursday to nearly 10 years in prison for his latest offenses.

U.S. District Court Senior Judge W. Earl Britt sentenced 54-year-old Jose Alfonso Rodriguez-Garcia to nine years and seven months in prison for illegal re-entry of an aggravated felon, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, announced Thursday evening.

“For years, Jose Alfonso Rodriguez-Garcia disregarded the laws of the United States having been previously deported ten times and racking up conviction after conviction including assault and narcotics offenses," said prosecutor, Robert J. Higdon, Jr., in a statement. "With this 115 month sentence, the American citizens, and in particular those of the Eastern District, are safer today because it has put a stop to Rodriguez-Garcia’s treating our borders as a revolving door.”

Rodriguez-Garcia was arrested in North Carolina's Wake County on a charge of second-degree forcible rape in 2017. Once in federal custody, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents learned he had previously been removed from the country 10 times.

In addition, Rodriguez-Garcia's record contained a long list of convictions, including felonies. He had been previously found guilty of burglary, receiving stolen property, grand theft from a person, theft, attempt to distribute a controlled substance, resisting a public officer, trespassing, possession of controlled substances, auto theft, evading arrest, assault on a female, deported alien found in the United States, illegal re-entry of a previously deported alien, and illegal re-entry by a previously deported aggravated felon.

Rodriguez-Garcia pleaded guilty in the current case in May.

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