Jamaican Citizen Sentenced to 21 Months for Illegally Reentering U.S.

MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Andre Bowyer, 32, a citizen of Jamaica, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 21 months in federal prison for illegally reentering the United States.  Bowyer pleaded guilty to this charge on August 16, 2023. 

On June 9, 2023, Bowyer was arrested in Grant County, Wisconsin, during a mail fraud investigation where he was using a fake name.  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement became aware of Bowyer’s presence following a fingerprint match during the booking process.  Bowyer admitted to paying a smuggler to bring him across the Mexican border into the United States in April or May of 2022.

In 2017, Bowyer was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud in the Eastern District of Louisiana. That case involved a scheme to defraud elderly and vulnerable victims of their money through a fake lottery scheme in which members of the conspiracy contacted victims by telephone through Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP).  Following his prison sentence in that case, Bowyer was removed from the United States to Jamaica in March 2022. As a condition of his removal and his supervised release from his mail fraud case, Bowyer was ordered not to reenter the United States. Bowyer was still on supervised release in the fraud case at the time of his 2023 arrest and faces revocation in that case.

In sentencing Bowyer on the illegal reentry charge, Judge Conley noted that Bowyer came back to the United States in 2022 shortly after his removal. He also expressed concern that it appeared Bowyer had returned to engaging in fraud given the circumstances of his arrest in Grant County, where he was arrested using a false name and attempted to pick up a mail parcel containing $18,000 in cash.

The charge against Bowyer was the result of an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven P. Anderson prosecuted this case.