Convicted Felon Gets Statutory Maximum Sentence for Illegal Reentry

A 39-year-old Mexican national with an extensive criminal history has been ordered to serve 10 years in federal prison for illegal reentry after deportation following an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox.

Antonio Serrano-Perez, of Tamaulipas, Mexico, was sentenced Friday morning before Senior U.S. District Judge John H. McBryde, who handed down the statutory maximum sentence based in part on the defendant’s lengthy criminal history.

Mr. Serrano-Perez pleaded guilty in May 2019 to illegal reentry after being deported at least five times, the judge noted, adding that after every removal, he came back into the United States illegally, only to commit crimes including cocaine trafficking and family violence.  

“This felon and narcotics trafficker has been deported to Mexico five times, and has repeatedly demonstrated that he has no respect for U.S. laws,” said Marc J. Moore, field office director of the ICE Dallas office.  “Throughout his extensive criminal career, he has operated as though the United States is simply a profitable location for him to traffic in illegal drugs.  After he fully completes his latest federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering the United States, our ICE officers will deport him a sixth time.”

Mr. Serrano-Perez was first removed to Mexico in October 1998, then reentered the United States at least five times over a 20-year period.  During that time, the judge observed, Mr. Serrano-Perez racked up numerous state drug and violent crime convictions as well as three federal immigration convictions.

Following an illegal reentry in 2006, at age 25, he was convicted of a federal immigration offense in the Southern District of Texas, sentenced to 27 months in prison, and then removed to Mexico in 2014.  At some point after that removal, he returned to Fort Worth, where he was apprehended on March 11, 2019 outside his residence by immigration authorities.

After serving his 10-year sentence, Mr. Serrano-Perez will once again face deportation proceedings.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, Violent Criminal Alien Section and ICE Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Levi Thomas is prosecuting the case.