A Guatemalan citizen, Edgar David Vasquez-Garcia, was sentenced on Mar. 23 to 18 months in federal prison for illegally re-entering the United States after a previous deportation.
Vasquez-Garcia, age 34, pleaded guilty to the charge after authorities determined he had not obtained permission from the Attorney General or Secretary of Homeland Security to return. The sentencing was announced by Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, and Vernon Liggins, Acting Field Office Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE-ERO) – Baltimore Field Office.
Law enforcement arrested Vasquez-Garcia in Edgewood, Maryland in October 2023 on second-degree assault charges. In May 2024, a jury convicted him of that offense and he received a ten-year sentence with five years suspended.
According to court records, Vasquez-Garcia first entered the United States through Mexico in July 2014 without legal status. He was detained by law enforcement at that time and admitted his illegal presence before being deported from Brownsville, Texas through expedited removal proceedings. After his deportation, he re-entered the country and traveled to Maryland where he was later apprehended.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America—a Department of Justice initiative aimed at combating illegal immigration and transnational criminal organizations while protecting communities from violent crime perpetrators.
U.S. Attorney Hayes said "ICE-ERO" played an important role in investigating this case and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Elizabeth McGuinn as well as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn Mills for prosecuting it.
