Guatemalan man sentenced to prison for illegal reentry, found living in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WTAJ) — A Guatemalan National was sentenced to prison after he was found living in Pennsylvania, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced.
Elvis Alfonso Lopez-Perez, 32, was found living in Carlisle despite having been previously deported. United States District Judge Keli M. Neary sentenced him to eight months in prison for his illegal reentry into the country.
According to Acting U.S. Attorney John C. Gurganus, Lopez-Perez was removed from the country on Feb. 1, 2013. He then illegally reentered at an unknown time and was found on May 28, 2024, without permission to legally reenter.This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
President Trump responds to return of alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to US
President Donald Trump responded to the sudden return of Salvadoran illegal and alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying, "he's a bad guy" and that the courts will "show how horrible this guy is." Trump appeared unbothered by Abrego Garcia's return on Friday afternoon, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that the Department of Justice made the decision and that soon the world will see how "horrible" a person he is. Trump expressed confidence in the Doj and its case against Abrego Garcia. "The DOJ made a decision," he said, adding, "I think their decisions have been very, very good." 'The Five': Dems, Liberal Media Have Some 'Big Questions To Answer' After Kilmar Abrego Garcia Charged "Maybe they just said, 'Look, all of these people, these judges, they want to try and run the country.' A local judge trying to run the country," said Trump. "The man has a horrible past, and I could see a decision being made, bring him back, show everybody how horrible this guy is." Read On The Fox News App The president said, "Frankly, we have to do something because the judges are trying to take the place of a president that won in a landslide. That's not supposed to be the way it is. So, I can see bringing him back. I could see. He's a bad guy." The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old illegal alien who was living in Maryland, to a high-security prison in his home country back in March on the grounds that he is a member of the violent MS-13 gang. Soon after his deportation, Democrats jumped to advocate for Abrego Garcia's release and return to the U.S., arguing that he was a wrongly deported "Maryland man." Dem Immigration Talking Points Fizzle As Dark Picture Of Abrego Garcia Emerges Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday that Abrego Garcia, 29, has landed in the United States and is set to face federal charges for human smuggling and conspiracy. "Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice," Bondi said. "A grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee returned a sealed indictment charging him with alien smuggling and conspiracy." According to the indictment, Garcia played a "significant role" in a human smuggling ring operating for nearly a decade. Bondi described him as a full-time smuggler who made more than 100 trips, transporting women, children, and MS-13 gang-affiliated persons throughout the United States. Fox News Digital obtained Tennessee Highway Patrol bodycam footage from a 2022 traffic stop where troopers pulled over Garcia for speeding. Inside his vehicle were eight other men, raising immediate suspicions. "He's hauling these people for money," one trooper said. Watch: Ag Bondi Details 'Very Serious Charges' Facing Kilmar Abrego Garcia Troopers found $1,400 in cash and flagged Garcia in the National Crime Information Center, which returned a gang/terrorism alert. ICE was called but never responded. Though Democrats have also pushed a narrative that Abrego Garcia is a "family man," court records show Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed a protective order against her husband in August 2020. The order said their shared son and stepchildren needed protection from Abrego Garcia, accusing him of verbal and physical abuse against her and mental abuse against her children. Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who led the charge among Democrats to push for Abrego Garcia's return, released a statement after news of the return broke, saying, "For months the Trump Administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution. Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States."Original article source: President Trump responds to return of alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to US
6 hours ago
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, newly returned to US, appears in court on charges of trafficking migrants
Mistakenly deported Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego Garcia appeared in a Tennessee courtroom Friday, hours after he was brought back to the United States to face criminal charges for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S. More than two months after the Trump administration admitted it mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia from Maryland to his native El Salvador, a federal grand jury has indicted him for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the United States. A two-count indictment, which was filed under seal in federal court in Tennessee last month and unsealed Friday, alleges Abrego Garcia, 29, participated in a yearslong conspiracy to haul undocumented migrants from Texas to the interior of the country. The return of Abrego Garcia from his native El Salvador follows a series of court battles in which the Trump administration repeatedly said it was unable to bring him back, drawing the country toward the brink of a constitutional crisis when the administration failed to heed the Supreme Court's order to facilitate his return. He made his initial court appearance Friday evening in the Middle District of Tennessee, answering "Yes, I understand" in Spanish when U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes asked him if he understood the charges against him. Judge Homes set a hearing for June 13, where Abrego Garcia will be arraigned on charges and the judge will take up the government's motion to hold him in pre-trial detention on the grounds that he "poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight" He will remain in federal custody in Tennessee pending next week's hearing. "If convicted at trial, the defendant faces a maximum punishment of 10 years' imprisonment for 'each alien' he transported," said the government's motion for detention, which also contained an allegation -- not included in the indictment -- that one of Abrego Garcia's co-conspirators told authorities that Abrego Garcia participated in the murder of a rival gang member's mother in El Salvador. Abrego Garcia's attorney, in an online press briefing, called the charges against his client "an abuse of power." "They'll stop at nothing at all -- even some of the most preposterous charges imaginable -- just to avoid admitting that they made a mistake, which is what everyone knows happened in this case," said attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. "Mr. Garcia is going to be vigorously defending the charges against him," the attorney said. The decision to pursue the indictment against Abrego Garcia led to the abrupt departure of Ben Schrader, a high-ranking federal prosecutor in Tennessee, sources briefed on Schrader's decision told ABC News. Schrader's resignation was prompted by concerns that the case was being pursued for political reasons, the sources said. Schrader, who spent 15 years in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nashville and was most recently the chief of the criminal division, declined to comment when contacted by ABC News. The alleged conspiracy spanned nearly a decade and involved the domestic transport of thousands of noncitizens from Mexico and Central America, including some children, in exchange for thousands of dollars, according to the indictment. Abrego Garcia is alleged to have participated in more than 100 such trips, according to the indictment. Among those allegedly transported were members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, sources familiar with the investigation said. Abrego Garcia is the only member of the alleged conspiracy charged in the indictment. Attorney General Pam Bondi, at a Friday afternoon press conference, thanked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for "agreeing to return Abrego Garcia to the United States." "Our government presented El Salvador with an arrest warrant and they agreed to return him to our country," Bondi said. Bondi said that if Abrego Garcia is convicted of the charges, upon the completion of his sentence he will be deported back to his home country of El Salvador. "The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring," Bondi said. "They found this was his full time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found, smuggling people throughout our country." In a statement to ABC News, Abrego Garcia's attorney said that he's going to keep fighting to ensure Abrego Garcia receives a fair trial. "From the beginning, this case has made one thing painfully clear: The government had the power to bring him back at any time. Instead, they chose to play games with the court and with a man's life," Sandoval-Moshenberg said. "We're not just fighting for Kilmar -- we're fighting to ensure due process rights are protected for everyone. Because tomorrow, this could be any one of us -- if we let power go unchecked, if we ignore our Constitution." Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who had been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison -- despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution -- after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13. His wife and attorneys deny that he is an MS-13 member. The Trump administration has acknowledged in court filings that Abrego Garcia's removal to El Salvador in March was in error, because it violated a U.S. immigration court order in 2019 that shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation to his native country, according to immigration court records. An immigration judge had determined that Abrego Garcia would likely face persecution there by local gangs that had allegedly terrorized him and his family. The administration argued, however, that Abrego Garcia should not be returned to the U.S. because he is a member of the transnational Salvadoran gang MS-13, a claim his family and attorneys have denied. In recent weeks, Trump administration officials have been publicizing Abrego Garcia's interactions with police over the years, despite a lack of corresponding criminal charges. After Abrego Garcia's family filed a lawsuit over his deportation, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that ruling on April 10. Abrego Garcia was initially sent to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison but was believed to have later been transferred to a different facility in the country. The criminal investigation that led to the charges was launched in April as federal authorities began scrutinizing the circumstances of a 2022 traffic stop of Abrego Garcia by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, according to the sources. Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding in a vehicle with eight passengers and told police they had been working construction in Missouri. According to body camera footage of the 2022 traffic stop, the Tennessee troopers -- after questioning Abrego Garcia -- discussed among themselves their suspicions that Abrego Garcia might be transporting people for money because nine people were traveling without luggage, but Abrego Garcia was not ticketed or charged. The officers ultimately allowed Abrego Garcia to drive on with just a warning about an expired driver's license, according to a report about the stop released last month by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Asked what circumstances have changed since Abrego Garcia was not taken in custody during that traffic stop in Tennessee, Bondi replied, "What has changed is Donald Trump is now president of the United States, and our borders are again secure, and thanks to the bright light that has been shined on Abrego Garcia -- this investigation continued with actually amazing police work, and we were able to track this case and stop this international smuggling ring from continuing." Asked by ABC News' Pierre Thomas asked whether this should be seen as resolving the separate civil case in Maryland in which a federal judge ordered the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, "There's a big difference between what the state of play was before the indictment and after the indictment. And so the reason why he is back and was returned was because an arrest warrant which was presented to the government and in El Salvador. So there's, there's a big difference there as far as whether it makes the ongoing litigation in Maryland moot. I would think so, but we don't know about this. He just landed today." As ABC News first reported last month, the Justice Department had been quietly investigating the Tenessee traffic stop. As part of the probe, federal agents in late April visited a federal prison in Talladega, Alabama to question Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, a convicted felon who was the registered owner of the vehicle Abrego Garcia was driving when stopped on Interstate 40 east of Nashville, sources previously told ABC News. Hernandez-Reyes was not present at the traffic stop. Hernandez-Reyes, 38, is currently serving a 30-month sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a prior felony conviction for illegal transportation of aliens. After being granted limited immunity, Hernandez-Reyes allegedly told investigators that he previously operated a "taxi service" based in Baltimore. He claimed to have met Abrego Garcia around 2015 and claimed to have hired him on multiple occasions to transport undocumented migrants from Texas to various locations in the United States, sources told ABC News. When details of the Tennessee traffic stop were first publicized, Abrego Garcia's wife said her husband sometimes transported groups of fellow construction workers between job sites. "Unfortunately, Kilmar is currently imprisoned without contact with the outside world, which means he cannot respond to the claims," Jennifer Vasquez Sura said in mid-April. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who flew to El Salvador and met with Abrego Garcia shortly after his deportation, said Friday that the Trump administration had "relented" regarding his return. "After months of ignoring our Constitution, it seems the Trump Admin has relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and due process for Kilmar Abrego Garcia," Van Hollen posted on X. "This has never been about the man -- it's about his constitutional rights & the rights of all." Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally as a teenager in 2012, according to court records. He had been living in Maryland for the past 13 years, and married Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, in 2019. The couple has one child together.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Proud Boys sue US government for $100m over Jan 6 prosecutions
Five leaders of far-right group the Proud Boys, who were convicted in connection to the 6 January, 2021 Capitol riot, have sued the US government for $100 million (£74m), claiming that their rights were violated during their prosecution. The five were convicted of plotting and taking part in the riot to overturn President Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 election. Trump pardoned or commuted their sentences earlier this year. The lawsuit, filed in Florida on Friday, claims FBI agents and prosecutors were motivated by personal biases when prosecuting their cases. They argue their constitutional rights were trampled on "to punish and oppress political allies" of Trump. The lawsuit was filed by Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. Tarrio was found guilty of plotting the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, which happened as lawmakers were certifying former President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison, the longest out of the five. He was formally convicted of seditious conspiracy, a rarely used charge of planning to overthrow the government, and multiple other counts. The other four leaders faced similar charges, and were also sentenced to time behind bars. Their convictions were overturned by Trump, who issued approximately 1,500 pardons of people involved in the Capitol riot in January, on the day of his inauguration. "These people have been destroyed," Trump said after signing their pardons. "What they've done to these people is outrageous. There's rarely been anything like it in the history of our country." The lawsuit filed on Friday alleges the five leaders of the Proud Boys were subject to "egregious and systemic abuse of the legal system". It accuses prosecutors of engaging in instances of "evidence tampering" and "witness intimidation". It also alleges that their prosecution was "corrupt and politically motivated." The lawsuit was filed against the Department of Justice, which is currently operating under the Trump administration and is run by Attorney General Pam Bondi. The BBC has reached out to the Justice Department for comment. According to figures released by the department in January, approximately 1,583 defendants have been charged with crimes associated with the Capitol riot. More than 600 were charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing law enforcement, including around 175 charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. Capitol Police officers were attacked by rioters with weapons including metal batons, wooden planks, flagpoles, fire extinguishers and pepper spray. Many lawmakers had condemned the riot, while Trump has described it as a "day of love". His pardons of those convicted have been criticised by Democratic lawmakers as an attempt to re-write history. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who was among the lawmakers forced to flee during the riot, called the pardons "an outrageous insult to our justice system". Ex-Proud Boys leader sentenced to 22 years in jail Proud Boys and Oath Keepers among over 1,500 Capitol riot defendants pardoned by Trump
