Illegal Aliens Sentenced for Unlawful Return After Removal

Gulfport, Miss. – Magdalena Maribel Gonzalez Cinto, 20, an illegal alien from Guatemala, was sentenced yesterday by Senior U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr. to “time served” (6 months and 25 days in prison), as well as one year of supervised release, for unlawful return of an alien after removal, announced U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst, Jere T. Miles, Special Agent in Charge of  Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans, and Michael J. Harrison, Acting Chief Patrol Agent of the Border Patrol’s New Orleans Sector.  Gonzalez Cinto pled guilty to the charge on January 14, 2020.

Previously, on May 13, 2020, Mario Castellano-Machado, 38, an illegal alien from Honduras (and the driver of the vehicle in which Magdalena Gonzalez Cinto was a passenger) was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden to “time served” (6 months and 4 days in prison) for unlawful return after removal.  He was convicted after pleading guilty on December 17, 2019, before Judge Ozerden.

On November 11, 2019, at about 10:42 p.m., a Harrison County Sheriff’s Department Interdiction Unit Deputy conducted a probable cause traffic stop on a Chrysler Pacifica bearing a Temporary Texas registration, on I-10 east bound.  The deputy encountered the driver, Mario Castellanos- Machado, who provided a Honduran driver’s license in the name of Yovani Cano Bardalez, which was later determined to be a false name.  He told the agent that they were going from Texas to Georgia for work. 

A United States Border Patrol Agent arrived at the scene and spoke with the passengers in the vehicle.  Through the agent’s 23 years of experience and numerous interdiction classes, he recognized this as an alien smuggling event.  All vehicle occupants were transported to the U.S. Border Patrol station in Gulfport, for processing, and Homeland Security Investigation special agents responded to the Border Patrol office to assist.  All eight aliens did not have proper documents and were found to be illegally present in the United States. 

Among the passengers was Gonzalez Cinto.  Both aliens were positively identified by computer scans of their fingerprints into a Homeland Security Database that automatically accessed their official immigration records together with fingerprint cards, photographs and prior immigration removal documents.  Both were determined to have illegally returned to the United States after having been lawfully removed back to their home nations of Honduras and Guatemala. 

A third illegal alien, Teodulio Ramos Ramos, 30, a citizen of Guatemala, also was a passenger in the vehicle, pled guilty on December 17, 2019 before Judge Ozerden for unlawfully returning after removal.  Ramos Ramos was sentenced on February 26, 2020, to “time served” (3 months and 16 days in prison), followed by one year of supervised release, during which he would be surrendered to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal proceedings to remove him to his home nation of Guatemala.

U.S. Attorney Hurst praised the cooperation exhibited by the U.S. Border Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department.  Assistant United States Attorney Stan Harris was the prosecutor for the case.