A Mexican national has entered a guilty plea to a charge of illegal reentry by a deported person in the Eastern District of Texas, following a sentence handed down by U.S. Magistrate Judge Christine L. Stetson yesterday. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Rigoberto Rodriguez-Moreno, who is currently 44 and was residing unlawfully in Lufkin, admitted before the court that he had returned to the United States without permission after being previously deported.
Information disclosed during the court proceedings revealed that the Department of Homeland Security and Investigations (HSI) first became aware of Rodriguez-Moreno's presence after he was detained in the Angelina County Jail on an unrelated state arrest warrant. Investigations went on to confirm that he had been deported twice before, once in 1999 and again in 2017. This is Rodriguez-Moreno's third conviction for immigration violations, his previous convictions including the harboring of illegal aliens and illegal reentry.
Now facing up to 20 years in federal prison on this recent reentry charge, Rodriguez-Moreno's sentencing is pending the results of a presentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office. While the court will determine the final sentence, it's noted that the defendant still has to confront charges at the state level in Angelina County unrelated to his immigration violations.
The case against Rodriguez-Moreno is tied to the broader Operation Take Back America initiative, which aims to forcefully fight against illegal immigration and dismantle the influence of cartels and transnational criminal organizations. As part of this initiative, resources are being directed to bolster efforts by the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN). The Lufkin Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas is to prosecute this case, following an investigation by Lufkin Homeland Security Investigations and the Angelina County Sheriff's Office.
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