A Honduran national, Miguel Angel Lopez-Mejia, was slapped with an indictment for illegally entering the US after a previous deportation. Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson announced, as detailed in a statement issued on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website.
Lopez-Mejia, 32, was discovered in the country on October 16, 25, and the indictment, dated October 31, accuses him of reentering sans authorization post his July 15, 22 deportation, according to the official statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office. He now faces a statutory max of two years behind bars, possibly with an additional year of supervised release, and could be ordered to cough up a fine as steep as $250,000, not to mention a $100.00 mandatory fee.
Still, Simpson was clear that "an indictment is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt," a reminder that echoed through the corridors of the legal process, highlighting the justice system's commitment to the presumption of innocence, as mentioned in the same press release.
Operation Take Back America underlies the charge, representing the Department of Justice's full-tilt approach to quell illegal immigration and root out cartels as well as transnational criminal organizations, efforts which are spearheaded by both the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN), the initiative seeks to safeguard neighborhoods and press back against the spread of violent crime, something Simpson articulated in his praise for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's diligent work on the case, heightened attention to border security is a hallmark of the operation's broad sweep.
