An illegal immigrant and convicted felon has been sentenced for re-entering the country.
US Attorney Mike Hurst has announced that 39-year-old Cosme Pimental-Armenta, a citizen of Mexico, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for illegally re-entering the country after he had been deported in 2004. Pimental-Armenta was deported from the United States in 2004 because of a forcible rape conviction in Orange County, California.
Pimental-Armenta was arrested after an August 2017 traffic stop when a Border Patrol agent assigned to the South Mississippi Metro Enforcement Team conducted a traffic stop for careless driving on a 2008 Toyota Tundra with a Texas license plate in Ocean Springs. During the stop, Pimental-Armenta handed the agent a Florida driver’s license with a false identity. The agent asked Pimental-Armenta if he had ever been arrested and he stated that he had not.
Following the sentencing, US Attorney Mike Hurst said that criminals who violate the laws of the country need to be dealt with.
“The President and Attorney General Sessions have made border security and immigration enforcement a priority for our country. We will continue to do our part in making sure Americans are safe by vigorously prosecuting violent criminals like this who blatantly violate our laws,” Hurst said.
Joseph Banco, Chief Patrol Agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s New Orleans Sector, says dangerous individuals need to be kept out of communities.
“As this conviction illustrates, the U.S. Border Patrol New Orleans Sector and the South Mississippi Metro Enforcement Team, through its ongoing integrated enforcement efforts serves as a prime example of our joint commitment to prevent potentially dangerous people from reaching our communities,” said Chief Banco.
Pimental-Armenta pled guilty to the charge back in October of 2017. Upon release from prison, he was ordered to be placed on supervised release for three years. He was also ordered to pay a special assessment of $100. Any return to the United States during the period of his supervised release period will constitute a violation of the defendant’s supervised release.
The sentence of 21 months was the highest guideline sentence available to the judge.
