Five foreign nationals have been sentenced in Philadelphia federal court for illegally reentering the United States after being previously deported, according to an announcement by U.S. Attorney David Metcalf.
Gerardo Antonio Estrada-Rios, a 28-year-old Honduran national, received an 18-month prison sentence from U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Costello. After serving his sentence, Estrada-Rios will be removed from the country again. He had been deported three times before—August 2016, July 2019, and October 2024—following a two-year prison term for a robbery conviction in Houston, Texas. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) identified him at Lehigh County Prison earlier this year and arrested him on federal charges in May. He pleaded guilty to illegal reentry in August.
Julio Cesar Concepcion, a 41-year-old Dominican national, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mark A. Kearney to one year and one day in prison for illegal reentry and will also be deported after serving his time. Concepcion had previously pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges involving heroin in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and was deported to the Dominican Republic in August 2021 following his release from prison. ICE encountered him again in April this year at a Philadelphia parking lot where he admitted to being present unlawfully; he pleaded guilty to illegal reentry in August.
Sean Christian, a Jamaican national aged 35, received a sentence of one year and one day plus two years of supervised release from U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Leeson Jr., with removal scheduled upon completion of his sentence. Christian had been deported in August 2016 after a conviction related to marijuana transportation in Arizona but was found by ICE to have returned illegally this year.
Isaac Tapia Hernandez, a Mexican national aged 35, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kai N. Scott to ten months’ imprisonment for illegal reentry and will be deported again after serving his sentence. Tapia Hernandez had previously been removed from the United States three times during May and June of 2019 after border encounters near Laredo, Texas.
Geysi Enecon Aguilar Montoya, a 41-year-old Honduran national, received a time-served sentence—approximately three months—from U.S. District Judge Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro for illegal reentry; he will also be removed from the country once more. Montoya had previously been removed four times between October 2007 and March 2024 before ICE apprehended him again this summer.
“These cases are part of Operation Take Back America, 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,” according to the press release.
The investigations were conducted by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations with prosecutions led by Assistant United States Attorneys Nancy Potts, Robert Schopf, and Terri Marinari.