LEXINGTON, KY - An undocumented alien with a previous felony conviction was sentenced to 92 months in federal prison for illegally reentering the U.S. a fourth time.
U.S. District Judge Joseph M. Hood sentenced 47-year-old Jose Eligio Pineda-Parada Monday for illegal re-entry into the U.S. by a previously deported felon.
Pineda-Parada, originally from El Salvador, was convicted of the charge after a one day trial in May of this year.
Evidence at the trial proved that in 1991 Pineda-Parada was convicted in Texas of a felony assault and was subsequently deported.
Since that time, Pineda-Parada has illegally reentered the U.S. four times. Most recently, Lexington authorities picked him up in December of 2011 for a DUI and related traffic offenses. While at the Fayette County Detention Center, jail officials identified Pineda-Parada as an undocumented alien who had been previously deported. They sent information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which opened an investigation and ultimately took Pineda-Parada into custody.
Court records showed that Pineda-Parada legally entered the U.S. in 1987. He received a two year prison sentence for his assault in 1991. A Federal judge in Texas sentenced him to 46 months in 2002 for illegally entering the U.S. a third time. He was deported back to El Salvador in 2004.
Under federal law, Pineda-Parada will have to serve 85 percent of his prison sentence.
Kerry B. Harvey, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky and Ricardo Wong, Chicago Field Director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations jointly announced the sentence.
The investigation was conducted by ICE. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Marye represented the U.S. Attorney’s Office in this case.
