Mexican national sentenced to 41 months for illegal re-entry

I.C.E. News Release

April 8, 2010

Mexican national sentenced to 41 months for illegal re-entry

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A 28-year-old Mexican national was sentenced Thursday to 41 months in federal prison for illegally re-entering the United States following deportation.

Raul Villa-Guerra, a Mexican citizen living in Columbus, was sentenced in U. S. District Court here today after he had been deported in 2001 for drug trafficking.

Carter M. Stewart, U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio and Rebecca Adducci, field office director for the ICE Office of Detention and Removal in Michigan and Ohio, announced the sentence handed down today by U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost.

According to court documents, Villa-Guerra came to the United States as a teenager. When he was 18, he was convicted in U.S. District Court in New Mexico for possession with intent to distribute heroin and sentenced to 27 months imprisonment. Upon his release from prison in 2001, he was deported back to Mexico and barred from ever returning to the United States.

He was arrested under the name Daniel Ortez Soto in October 2009 in Columbus on felony charges of complicity trafficking in heroin. A fingerprint check determined that Soto was really Villa-Guerra. He pleaded guilty on Jan. 7, 2010 to one count of illegal reentry to the United States.

Stewart commended the investigation by ICE agents, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah A. Solove, who prosecuted the case.

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Last Modified: Thursday, April 8, 2010

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1004/100408columbus.htm

Considering the fact that illegal re-entry of a previously deported felon is an offense which is punishable by 20 years, I would say he got off easy with 41 months.