A man who illegally returned to the United States after being deported was sentenced today to 12 months in federal prison.
Gabriel Marceleno-Lopez, age 29, a citizen of Mexico illegally present in the United States and residing in Waterloo, Iowa, received the prison term after a guilty plea on July 28, 2021, to one count of illegal reentry into the United States after having been deported following a conviction for an aggravated felony.
At the guilty plea, Marceleno-Lopez admitted he had previously been deported from the United States and illegally reentered the United States without the permission of the United States government. Marceleno-Lopez was deported in April 2012 following a February 2012 conviction in the District Court of Ford County, Kansas, in State v. Gabriel Marceleno-Lopez, Case No. 10-CR-579, for aggravated robbery, an aggravated felony. He was deported a second time in March 2017 following a July 2014 felony conviction in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, in United States v. Gabriel Marceleno-Lopez, Case No. 6:14-CR-10032, for illegal reentry after an aggravated felony conviction.
In May 2021, Marceleno-Lopez came to the attention of immigration agents following his arrest for Harassment of a Public Official and Interference with Official Acts in Black Hawk County, Iowa. These charges are still pending in state court.
Marceleno-Lopez was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Marceleno-Lopez was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Marceleno-Lopez is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel C. Tvedt and investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 21-CR-2035.
Follow us on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.
