A 61-year-old Turkish man who was found crossing the border illegally in May has been sentenced to 3½ months for unlawfully re-entering the United States after having been removed from the country.
Tayfun Remzi Reis of Istanbul, who also was fined $2,000, had been removed from New York City in 2005 when using the name Ertug Sefa Gunay, according to court documents.
On May 30, Customs and Border Protection officers told Agent Jason May of the U.S. Border Patrol that an individual who was suspected of attempting to smuggle someone into the U.S. had been detained at the Houlton border crossing.
The detainee told investigators he drove a man to a field road on the Canadian side of the border about 30 minutes north of Houlton and dropped him off. About 5 p.m., a sensor located about 300 yards from the border on a farm road in Blaine was activated.
May went to the area to investigate, the affidavit said.
“I observed a beaten down trail in the grass heading southwest from the location of the sensor,” May wrote. “After observing the trail, I followed the trail for approximately 25 feet into the woods where I encountered a subject who was attempting to conceal his presence. The subject was laying in a fetal position with a few branches covering his person.”
The man identified himself as an American citizen named David Danser and gave investigators a birth certificate issued from Pennsylvania and a New Jersey driver’s license, according to the affidavit. A check of his fingerprints revealed that Danser was actually Reis.
Information about why Reis entered the U.S. through Maine was not included in court documents.
After completing his sentence, Reis faces deportation.