Geovany Rodriguez-Carrasco Gets 1 Year for Illegal Reentry

Geovany Rodriguez-Carrasco, a 38-year-old Honduran national with a long history of illegal presence in the United States, was sentenced today to 12 months in federal prison for illegally reentering the country after being deported twice. The ruling, handed down in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, marks the latest chapter in a pattern of repeated immigration violations spanning more than a decade.

Rodriguez-Carrasco pleaded guilty on December 1, 2017, to one count of illegal reentry of a removed alien following a felony conviction. He admitted in court that he crossed back into the United States without authorization after his last deportation in August 2013. That prior removal came on the heels of a July 2013 felony conviction in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, also for illegal reentry.

But this wasn’t his first brush with U.S. immigration law. Records show Rodriguez-Carrasco was previously deported in 2004 after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of illegal entry in the Southern District of Texas. Despite two formal removals and criminal convictions, he returned to Cedar Rapids—where he had been living—defying federal orders and landing back in the crosshairs of federal prosecutors.

U.S. District Court Judge Linda R. Reade imposed the 12-month sentence and added a mandatory three-year term of supervised release. Rodriguez-Carrasco will serve no parole, as is standard in the federal system. He remains in the custody of the United States Marshals Service pending transfer to a federal prison facility.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, specifically Enforcement and Removal Operations, which tracks repeat immigration offenders. Assistant United States Attorney Daniel C. Tvedt handled the prosecution, underscoring the federal government’s continued focus on removing and prosecuting individuals with histories of illegal reentry.

Case details are available through the Northern District of Iowa’s public court records at ecf.iand.uscourts.gov. The docket number is 17-CR-87. Follow updates from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.