The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland has announced several recent prosecutions under Operation Take Back America, a Department of Justice initiative targeting illegal immigration and related offenses.
According to U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes, these cases involve multiple individuals charged with illegal re-entry and other offenses after previously being removed from the United States. The prosecutions were carried out in coordination with Acting Field Office Director Vernon Liggins of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE-ERO) – Baltimore Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Christopher R. Heck of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – Maryland.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Ajmel A. Quereshi sentenced Cristian Rivas-Bonilla, a 27-year-old citizen of El Salvador, to time served after he pled guilty to resisting, opposing, impeding, and interfering with federal law enforcement officers. The incident occurred in November 2025 when law enforcement attempted to locate Rivas-Bonilla in Camp Springs, Maryland following a final order of removal from an immigration judge. He attempted to evade HSI agents by leading them on a high-speed car chase.
Willians Elenilson Beltran-Quintanilla, another El Salvadorian citizen aged 39, recently pled guilty in federal court to illegally re-entering the United States after removal. Law enforcement located him in Prince George’s County, Maryland in December 2023.
An indictment was also announced against Kevin Mendez Vasquez, also known as “Kevin Estix Lara Henriquez,” a 45-year-old El Salvadorian national who is accused of illegally re-entering the country after convictions for burglary, grand larceny, and abduction related to three home invasions in Fairfax County, Virginia. ICE officers arrested him during a vehicle investigation in Elkridge, Maryland on January 19, 2026.
Additionally, the office filed a criminal complaint against Juan Carlos Rivas-Montano, a 45-year-old El Salvadorian national found working in Hyattsville, Maryland after being deported twice before.
Samuel Rios-Rodriguez, a 33-year-old citizen of Honduras who had been previously removed from the U.S. in November 2017 and was found again in Maryland following his arrest in December 2022, was indicted by a federal grand jury for illegal re-entry.
Carlos Amador Lopez, another Honduran national aged 29 who had been convicted of an aggravated felony and removed from the country previously, was indicted on charges of illegal re-entry after law enforcement encountered him again in Maryland in December 2025.
Operation Take Back America is described as "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."
U.S. Attorney Hayes commended ICE-ERO and HSI for their work on these investigations and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys involved with prosecuting these cases.
More information about the priorities and resources available through the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office can be found at justice.gov/usao-md and justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.
