By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Chief Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
A BAHAMIAN man deported from the United States five times in 12 years has been convicted of illegally entering the country again and is facing another deportation.
Zeno Higgs, 51, was found guilty following a one-day trial after US authorities discovered his immigration status when Tallahassee police encountered him while investigating a reported theft and assault last year.
Higgs is due to be sentenced on December 10.
US Attorney for the Northern District of Florida John Heekin said prosecutors would hold Higgs accountable before removing him from the country again.
“Our nation’s immigration laws are not mere suggestions,” Mr Heekin said, describing Higgs as a “criminal illegal alien” who had disregarded them despite his five previous deportations.
“Thanks to this aggressive prosecution by my office,” he said, “that delivered a swift guilty verdict by a jury, we will hold this criminal illegal alien accountable for his brazen criminality before kicking him out of our country once and for all.”
Higgs was indicted in March after authorities discovered he was in the United States illegally.
On September 11, 2024, Tallahassee Police Department officers responded to a reported theft and assault involving a wheelchair-bound person at a convenience store.
Officers encountered Higgs and arrested him after discovering that he had previously been deported from the United States five times.
Immigration records showed he was deported on July 9, 2014; November 6, 2015; June 14, 2016; February 15, 2018; and April 18, 2024.
Court testimony also showed Higgs had previously been convicted of immigration offences in federal court.
He was convicted in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 2017 of bringing aliens into the United States and again in 2022 of illegal re-entry.
Higgs was also convicted in Broward County Circuit Court in 2023 of felony battery on a law enforcement officer.
He denied the latest illegal re-entry charge at his initial arraignment in April and was detained pending trial.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Jason R Coody.
It forms part of Operation Take Back America, a US Department of Justice initiative targeting illegal immigration, cartels, transnational criminal organisations and violent crime.
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