Guatemalan Man Sentenced to Prison for Illegally Reentering the United States

A Guatemalan man who illegally returned to the United States after being deported was sentenced today to three months in federal prison.

Domingo Pacheco-Poo, age 44, a citizen of Guatemala illegally present in the United States and residing in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, received the prison term after a December 10, 2018, guilty plea to one count of illegal reentry into the United States.

At the guilty plea, Pacheco-Poo admitted he had previously been deported from the United States in July 2012 and September 2012 and illegally reentered the United States without the permission of the United States government.  Pacheco-Poo was convicted in Arizona in August 2012 of illegal entry into the United States.  Pacheco-Poo was also given a voluntary return to Mexico in April 2006 where he used an alias and claimed to be a Mexican citizen.  Pacheco-Poo was found by immigration officials in November 2018 when he unexpectedly accompanied his family to the immigration office in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the other members of his family were required to report.  Fingerprints confirmed Pacheco-Poo’s identity and his prior removal.

Pacheco-Poo, under an alias name, also used fraudulent identification documents and a Social Security number issued to another person to complete employment paperwork in August 2014 at a business in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.  Pacheco-Poo failed to report to work in May 2018 when immigration officials executed a search warrant at that business and arrested other illegal aliens. 

Pacheco-Poo was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams.  Pacheco-Poo was sentenced to 92 days’ imprisonment.  He must also serve a one-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Pacheco-Poo is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be turned over to immigration officials.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel C. Tvedt and investigated by Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations. 

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. 

The case file number is 18-CR-109-CJW.

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