A man sentenced to prison for his role in a human smuggling case that led to a family of four from India freezing to death while trying to cross the Manitoba-U.S. border in 2022 is asking the courts to modify his sentence.
Harshkumar Patel, an Indian national who was sentenced to just over 10 years in prison after being arrested in Chicago in 2024, filed a motion in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota on Monday to have his sentence lessened by one day and a term of supervised release be put in place so he can benefit from the First Step Act.
The First Step Act allows prisoners who successfully participate in recidivism reduction programming to earn credits — 10 days of credits for every 30 days of successful participation — that can be used toward early release to supervision.
During sentencing, however, the court declined to impose supervised release for Patel, stating he “is a deportable alien, likely to be removed to India after imprisonment,” court documents state.
“I’m not going to impose a term of supervised release,” the court said at the time of his sentencing. “If Mr. Patel does remain in the United States following release from custody, then the court would indeed impose a period of supervision.… I will do so in the future if necessary.”
In the motion, Patel argues it is necessary because he is eligible for First Step Act credits, but without a term of supervised release, he has nothing to apply them toward.
The motion notes he is not the subject of a final order of removal, and that he has no disciplinary infractions and was ranked as “low risk” on his most recent risk assessment.
The Patel family: Jagdish, 39, Dharmik, 3, Vaishali, 37, and Vihangi, 11. (Submitted)
His co-accused, Steve Shand, a U.S. citizen who was convicted for the same events and sentenced on the same day as Patel, was ordered to two years of supervised release after he leaves prison. Shand has been earning credits that might be applied toward early transfer to supervision, the motion said.
Patel was found to have co-ordinated the smuggling operation and to have hired Shand to drive a group of migrants once they had crossed the border from Manitoba to Minnesota.
A family from India — Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife, 37, Vaishali, their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, and Dharmik, their three-year-old son — was found frozen to death in a snow-drifted Manitoba field, about 12 metres from the U.S. border, on Jan. 19, 2022.
Patel asked the court earlier this year to overturn his conviction and sentence, but a U.S. appeals court upheld both, finding there was sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict.
A lawyer for Shand has also asked the appeal court to overturn his conviction and sentence.
