Guatemalan National Sentenced for Illegal Reentry into the United States

Jackson, MS – A Guatemalan national was sentenced on August 6, 2025, to seven months in federal prison for unlawfully reentering the United States after being removed from the country.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Felino Fernando Perez-Jimenez, 25, was found by law enforcement officials to be unlawfully present in the country on or about January 11, 2025, when he was arrested by the Carthage Police Department for simple assault, resisting arrest, public drunk, and failure to comply with an officer. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) encountered Perez-Jimenez at the Leake County Jail in Carthage, Mississippi, on January 12, 2025. A records check identified the defendant to be a citizen of Guatemala by virtue of birth, and not in possession of valid immigration documents allowing him to be or remain in the United States legally. Perez-Jimenez had been previously removed from the United States in 2023.

Perez-Jimenez was indicted by a federal grand jury on February 4, 2025, and pleaded guilty on May 2, 2025.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, Patrick A. Lemon; Eric P. DeLaune, Special Agent-in-Charge for Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans, Louisiana; and Brian Acuna, Acting Field Office Director of ICE/ERO in New Orleans, made the announcement.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Wade Allen and Kimberly T. Purdie prosecuted the case.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security investigations as 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).