Honduran Man Sentenced to Prison for Illegally Reentering the United States

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

Edi Lenin Chirinos-Najera, age 26, a citizen of Honduras illegally present in the United States and residing in Muscatine, Iowa, received the prison term after a May 23, 2018, guilty plea to one count of illegal reentry into the United States.

At the guilty plea, Chirinos-Najera admitted he had previously been deported from the United States in 2014 and illegally reentered the United States without the permission of the United States government in 2017.  Chirinos-Najera was found by immigration agents in April 2018 following Chirinos-Najera’s arrest for public intoxication.  That matter remains pending.  While Chirinos-Najera initially denied ever being deported, an analysis of his fingerprints confirmed that he had been deported in 2014.

Chirinos-Najera was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by Chief United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand.  Chirinos-Najera was sentenced to 143 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.

Chirinos-Najera 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-41-LTS.  Follow us on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.