Fermin Ortuno Valdovinos, a 47-year-old resident of Summerville, South Carolina, has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for illegal reentry into the United States after removal. This follows his conviction for an aggravated felony and violation of supervised release.
Valdovinos's criminal history includes three illegal reentries into the U.S. following deportations and convictions for child sex crimes. In July 2009, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers encountered him at Anaheim City Jail in California on charges related to lewd acts upon a child under 14. He admitted entering the U.S. without inspection by an immigration officer.
In March 2011, Valdovinos was convicted in California Superior Court of lewd acts upon a child under 14 and sentenced to six years in prison, with additional sentences for forcible lewd acts totaling 12 years.
While serving time for these offenses, he was ordered removed to Mexico by an immigration official in San Bernardino, California. He was deported on July 2, 2019.
However, Valdovinos illegally reentered the U.S. near Sasabe, Arizona days later and was apprehended by Border Patrol agents. He pleaded guilty to illegal reentry in October 2019 and received a sentence of two years' imprisonment with three years' supervised release.
After being removed again from the U.S. on April 14, 2021, Valdovinos returned illegally once more in July 2022 near San Clemente, California. Following another guilty plea for improper entry that September, he received a six-month sentence and subsequently violated his supervised release terms leading to additional imprisonment.
Following his third removal on July 5, 2023, Valdovinos reentered the country yet again before being arrested in Berkeley County, South Carolina on June 20, 2024 for failing to register as a sex offender.
United States District Judge Richard M. Gergel sentenced Valdovinos to fifty months' imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release for illegal reentry after removal due to an aggravated felony conviction. An additional ten-month sentence was imposed consecutively for violating supervised release conditions.
The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security's ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations with Assistant U.S. Attorney Dean H. Secor prosecuting.
