A man who re-entered the United States following a felony conviction was sentenced on November 18, 2014, to 7 months’ imprisonment.

Jose Santillanes-Barraza, age 43, from Mexico, received the prison term after a June 17, 2014, guilty plea to one count of illegal re-entry as a felon.

At the guilty plea, Santillanes-Barraza admitted he had re-entered the United States without permission after being removed from the country on December 1, 2010.  On August 26, 2010, Santillanes-Barraza was convicted of tampering with records in the Iowa District Court, Buena Vista County.   Santillanes-Barraza came to the attention of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) after he was arrested on April 30, 2014, in Hancock County, Iowa for OWI.      

Santillanes-Barraza was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett.  Santillanes-Barraza was sentenced to 7 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a 3-year term of supervised release.  There is no parole in the federal system.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kevin C. Fletcher and investigated by HSI and the Enforcement and Removal Office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau.  

Court file information is available at https//ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.  The case file number is 14-CR-3027.