A Guatemalan citizen, Bayron Leopoldo Perez Batres, age 63 and living in Beltsville, Maryland, appeared in federal court in the District of Maryland. He is charged with illegal reentry after being deported from the United States on three occasions: January 1996, September 2009, and May 2010. Authorities state that Perez Batres did not obtain permission from either the Attorney General or the Secretary of Homeland Security to apply for readmission as required by law.
If convicted of illegal reentry, Perez Batres could face up to two years in prison, one year of supervised release, and a fine reaching $250,000. Sentencing will be determined by a federal district court judge based on U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other legal factors.
The case is under investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The prosecution team includes Trial Attorneys Matthew Thiman and Sean F. Mulryne from the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP) along with Assistant U.S. Attorney LaShanta Harris for the District of Maryland.
The indictment was coordinated through Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), a partnership between the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security focused on combating human smuggling and trafficking operations led by cartels and transnational criminal organizations. JTFA supports prosecutions related to crimes involving unaccompanied alien children as well as broader immigration offenses affecting public safety and border security. Since its inception, JTFA has contributed to hundreds of arrests and convictions targeting organizers involved in human smuggling across multiple regions including Mexico, Central America, Canada, the Caribbean, maritime borders, and elsewhere.
According to officials: "An indictment is merely an allegation and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law."
