Two Foreign Nationals Sentenced for Illegally Reentering the United States After Deportation

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that two foreign nationals convicted separately of illegally reentering the United States after prior deportations were sentenced this week.

Dagoberto Herrera-Abreu, aka Roberto Rovira, 52, a Dominican national, was sentenced by United States District Judge Mia Roberts Perez on Monday to 12 months and one day in prison for illegal reentry. Upon completing his prison sentence, he will be removed from the United States again.

Herrera-Abreu had previously been removed from the U.S. in September 2010, after serving a state prison sentence for possession with intent to deliver controlled substances in Philadelphia, plus additional prison time imposed after he absconded from a drug treatment facility.

In July 2024, a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) task force executing a narcotics search warrant in Northeast Philadelphia encountered the defendant, who was subsequently charged in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas with a drug offense, to which he pleaded guilty. In February of this year, following Herrera-Abreu’s completion of his prison sentence, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers took him into federal custody. He was charged by indictment with illegal reentry the same month and pleaded guilty in April.

Claudio Reyes-Morales, 36, a Mexican national, was sentenced by United States District Judge Paul S. Diamond yesterday to time served, over two months, for illegal reentry. Having completed his sentence, he will be removed from the United States again.

Reyes-Morales had previously been removed from the U.S. in October 2011 and June 2012, following encounters with the U.S. Border Patrol in Arizona.

In February of this year, ICE learned that Reyes-Morales had been arrested by the Norristown (Pa.) Police Department. In July, while executing an unrelated search warrant, HSI and ICE officers encountered the defendant and took him into custody. Reyes-Morales was charged by information with illegal reentry in August and pleaded guilty this week, waiving prosecution by indictment.

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 (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).

The cases were investigated by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations and HSI and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Robert Schopf and Michael Miller.