Two-Time Felon Sentenced for Illegally Re-Entering the United States

A man who illegally re-entered the United States after having been convicted of two federal immigration-related felony offenses was sentenced February 18, 2026, to a total of four years in federal prison.

Jesus Banuelos-Lepe, 49, who is a citizen of Mexico but had been living in Maurice, Iowa, received the prison term after a September 30, 2025, guilty plea to one count of illegal re-entry as a felon.  Additionally, at the time he was found illegally in the United States, he was on federal supervised release from another 2023 federal illegal re-entry conviction which included conditions he neither illegally re-enter the United States, nor commit new law violations. The hearing on February 18, 2026, was a combined sentencing for the 2025 illegal re-entry conviction, and for the violations of his 2023 supervised release terms.

At the combined hearing, Banuelos-Lepe admitted that on July 20, 2025, he was arrested in Sioux County, Iowa, for operating while intoxicated after he was found passed out behind the wheel of his vehicle in the middle of the road after consuming 12 beers.  Following his arrest, he was booked into the Sioux County Jail but provided an alias to law enforcement.  Further investigation proved his true identity as Banuelos-Lepe, a citizen of Mexico, who had been removed from the United States on five occasions and did not have permission to legally be in the United States. 

Banuelos-Lepe had previously been convicted of federal felony transportation of an illegal alien, in April of 2007, in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.  This offense involved defendant smuggling two aliens into the United States from Mexico then holding one of them against their will pending additional smuggling fees. 

Banuelos-Lepe was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand.  Banuelos-Lepe was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment for this 2025 illegal re-entry conviction and 24 months’ imprisonment for violating conditions of supervised release from his 2023 conviction.  Those periods of incarceration are to be served consecutively, for a combined sentence of four years’ imprisonment.  He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Banuelos-Lepe is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America (https://www.justice.gov/dag/media/1393746/dl?inline) 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 Neighborhood (PSN).

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Patrick T. Greenwood and was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security.  

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

The case file number is 25-CR-04045 and 25-CR-4057.  Follow us on X @USAO_NDIA.