Guatemalan Man Sentenced For Third Illegal Entry into United States

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – Otilio Sales-Gomes 34, of Guatemala, was sentenced today to serve eight (8) months in prison following his guilty plea to illegally reentering the United States. This was his second felony conviction for this offense and involved his third illegal entry in the United States, announced United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and Michael T. Phillips, Field Office Director, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations—Buffalo Field Office.

In pleading guilty, Sales-Gomes admitted that he returned to the United States approximately one year ago and that he was recently living and working illegally in Oriskany, New York. Sales-Gomes also admitted that he was first removed from the United States in September 2005, and that he later returned illegally to the United States. Nearly two years later, in June 2007, Sales-Gomes was convicted in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico of one felony count of reentry after removal, after which he was deported a second time.

Following the completion of his eight-month prison sentence, Sales-Gomes will be subject to removal proceedings for the third time. Sales-Gomes was sentenced by Chief United States District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby, who presided over the case and who took Sales-Gomes’s earlier guilty plea.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael F. Perry.