MEXICAN NATIONAL PLEADS GUILTY TO ILLEGAL REENTRY

A. Courtney Cox, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced today that on June 9, 2009, MARCIAL RAMIREZ-SILVA, age 33, a citizen of Mexico, pled guilty in United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois at Benton, Illinois, to a one count indictment charging him with Illegal Reentry into the United States by an Illegal Alien. The violation occurred on March 12, 2007, in Effingham County, Illinois. RAMIREZ-SILVA is scheduled to be sentenced on September 10 at 10:00 a.m.

At his plea, RAMIREZ-SILVA admitted that he was stopped on Interstate 70 in Effingham County, Illinois, on March 12, 2007, by the Effingham County Sheriff’s Department and was at the time illegally in the United States after having previously been ordered removed following his conviction and sentence for Conspiracy to Smuggle Aliens, which occurred in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 2007. Based upon that conviction, he had been sentenced and removed from the United States following his imprisonment. RAMIREZ-SILVA admitted at his plea that it was illegal for him to be present in the United States following that removal without having first obtained the permission of the Attorney General of the United States or his successor, the Secretary fo Homeland Security.

The offense carries with it a maximum penalty of twenty (20) years imprisonment or a fine of $250,000.00, or both and not more than 3 years of supervised release following imprisonment. Supervised Release terms for illegal alien cases generally involve a requirement that the defendant not reenter the country since administratively the defendant will be removed from the United States upon completion of his prison sentence and will not be subject to direct supervision by a probation officer.

This case was investigated by agents from the United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael C. Carr.