CDCA Federal Prosecutors This Week Charge 32 Defendants with Being Illegal Aliens Reentering the United States Following Removal

LOS ANGELES – Working alongside law enforcement partners at United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, federal prosecutors in the Central District of California this week filed criminal charges against 32 defendants who allegedly illegally re-entered the United States after being removed, the Justice Department announced today.   

Many of the defendants charged were previously convicted of felonies before they were removed from the United States, offenses that include committing lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14 years.

The crime of being found in the United States following removal carries a base sentence of up to two years in federal prison. Defendants who were removed after being convicted of a felony face a maximum 10-year sentence and defendants removed after being convicted of an aggravated felony face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.

The recently filed cases include the following:

• Misael Alberto Feliciano, 29, of Mexico, was charged via a federal criminal complaint with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal. Feliciano, who was removed from the U.S. in 2018, was charged after he was recently arrested by the West Covina Police Department on suspicion of possessing of a controlled substance and unlawful paraphernalia. Feliciano was on parole at time of his arrest. Feliciano was previously convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court in 2016 for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, for which he was sentenced to three years in California state prison. Assistant United States Attorney MiRi Song of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section is prosecuting this case.

Federal prosecutors also announced their intent to prosecute Oscar Eduardo Ortega, 43, of Mexico, who was federally charged in 2022 in a one-count indictment with being an illegal alien found in the United States after removal. Ortega was removed from the United States in 2016 and 2018. Ortega was charged after he was arrested in Orange County for killing two teenagers in a fatal DUI accident in 2021. His criminal history includes two felony convictions in 2005 in Los Angeles Superior Court for grand theft of personal property, for which he received a sentence of one year in California state prison, and for unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle, for which he was sentenced to 19 days in state custody. Ortega also was convicted in Orange County Superior Court in 2014 of false imprisonment by violence/deceit. For that conviction, he was sentenced to 16 months in state prison. Ortega is set for release after serving 3.5 years of a 10-year sentence in California state prison for the fatal DUI accident. Ortega faces up to an additional 20 years in federal prison if convicted on felony immigration charges.

Criminal complaints and indictments contain allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

These cases are 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 our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).