FOREIGN NATIONAL SENTENCED FOR ILLEGAL RE-ENTRY

A. Courtney Cox, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that RUBEN ESCOBAR-SIFUENTES, 25, of Tamaulipas, Mexico, pled guilty on April 20, 2009, in federal district court in East St. Louis, to Illegal Re-entry into the United States by an alien who had been previously removed from the United States, and was immediately sentenced to eleven months’ imprisonment. ESCOBAR-SIFUENTES was also ordered to pay a fine of $50 and a special assessment of $100, and to serve one year of supervised release following incarceration unless he is first deported.

ESCOBAR-SIFUENTES, who was arrested on traffic charges in Madison County, Illinois, on or about December 8, 2008, was taken into custody by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on February 9, 2009, after they learned that he had previously been removed from the United States on four separate occasions.

The case was investigated by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen B. Clark.