Cecilio Castro-Zacarias, a 33-year-old Guatemalan national, was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for the federal crime of unlawful reentry after deportation. The conviction caps a long history of evasion and repeated removals, highlighting the persistent cracks in border enforcement.
Castro-Zacarias stood before U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, who handed down a sentence of time served and slapped on one year of supervised release. The defendant, previously deported three times in 2005 — on January 13, April 6, and August 12 — had no legal right to be in the United States. Yet he returned, again and again.
In September 2017, law enforcement officers in New Bedford encountered Castro-Zacarias during a routine operation and quickly flagged him as an alien unlawfully present in the country. Immigration records confirmed his multiple prior removals. He was taken into federal custody and later charged under federal statutes targeting repeat immigration offenders.
By November 2017, Castro-Zacarias pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful reentry of a deported alien, a felony charge carrying stiff penalties. No plea deal erased the stain of his record. The prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Sullivan Jacobus of the Major Crimes Unit, pushed for accountability, emphasizing the defendant’s pattern of defiance.
U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Michael Shea, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, announced the sentencing outcome. Lelling’s office has made immigration enforcement a priority in recent years, particularly cases involving repeat offenders who reenter the U.S. after formal deportation.
Castro-Zacarias now faces imminent deportation once federal authorities complete processing. Despite serving no additional prison time, his criminal conviction and supervised release status mark another chapter in a cycle that federal prosecutors say must be broken. For now, he remains under the government’s watch — a man already removed once, twice, three times, and still found here again.
Related Federal Cases
- Deported Dominican Man Back in Court: Illegal Reentry · Massachusetts
- Dominican National Olivo-Rodriguez Pleads Guilty to Illegal Reentry · Massachusetts
- Salvadoran National Perez-Fuentes Gets 6 Months for Illegal Reentry · Massachusetts
- Dominican National Lara Troncoso Pleads Guilty to Illegal Reentry · Massachusetts
- Diostene Pimental Charged With Illegal Reentry After Deportation · Massachusetts
Key Facts
- State: Massachusetts
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Organized Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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