Two foreign nationals have been sentenced in Philadelphia for illegally reentering the United States after previous deportations, according to an announcement from U.S. Attorney David Metcalf.
Dagoberto Herrera-Abreu, also known as Roberto Rovira, a 52-year-old Dominican national, received a sentence of 12 months and one day in prison from United States District Judge Mia Roberts Perez. After serving his sentence, Herrera-Abreu will be removed from the country again. He was previously deported in September 2010 following a state prison term for possession with intent to deliver controlled substances in Philadelphia and additional time for absconding from a drug treatment facility.
In July 2024, during the execution of a narcotics search warrant by a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) task force in Northeast Philadelphia, Herrera-Abreu was encountered and later charged with a drug offense in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. He pleaded guilty to that charge. In February 2025, after completing his state sentence, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers took him into federal custody. He was indicted for illegal reentry that same month and pleaded guilty in April.
Claudio Reyes-Morales, a 36-year-old Mexican national, was sentenced by United States District Judge Paul S. Diamond to time served—over two months—for illegal reentry. Upon completion of his sentence, he will also be removed from the United States again. Reyes-Morales had previously been deported twice—in October 2011 and June 2012—after encounters with U.S. Border Patrol agents in Arizona.
In February 2025, ICE learned that Reyes-Morales had been arrested by Norristown Police Department in Pennsylvania. In July, HSI and ICE officers encountered him while executing an unrelated search warrant and took him into custody. He was charged by information with illegal reentry in August and pleaded guilty this week, waiving prosecution by indictment.
“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. “Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).”
The investigations were conducted by ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations along with HSI. Assistant United States Attorneys Robert Schopf and Michael Miller prosecuted both cases.
