Indianapolis Jury Convicts Man of Illegal Reentry
INDIANAPOLIS—A federal jury in Indianapolis has found a Mexican national guilty of illegal reentry into the United States.
The trial marks the Southern District of Indiana’s first illegal re-entry case in over a decade decided by jury, coming in a year already marked by an unprecedented wave of prosecutions and sentences driven by the combined efforts of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and ICE in the state of Indiana for illegal reentry.
Gilberto Hernandez-Sanchez, 29, was convicted following a trial that revealed he had been removed from the country on four separate occasions. According to court documents, Hernandez-Sanchez was deported to Mexico in November 2021. He re-entered the U.S. in 2022 and was later arrested in 2024 at the Plainfield Correctional Facility, where he was serving time for a state-level domestic battery conviction.
Prosecutors said Hernandez-Sanchez has a long criminal history, including convictions for public intoxication, domestic battery, false informing, endangering the life of another, battery resulting in bodily injury, and domestic battery resulting in serious bodily injury.
His initial illegal entry occurred in 2014, and he was deported and re-entered the country multiple times over the following years.
“Gilberto Hernandez-Sanchez’s blatant disregard for our nation’s immigration laws and his violent criminal history make it clear that he is a danger to our communities and has no place in the United States,” said ICE Chicago Field Office Director Russell Hott. “Despite being removed from this country multiple times, he continued to unlawfully reenter and commit violent crimes, including domestic battery. ICE will not tolerate this lawlessness. Through initiatives like Operation Midway Blitz, we are using every tool at our disposal to remove dangerous individuals like Hernandez-Sanchez and protect the American people from those who threaten their safety and security.”
The case also had assistance from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and the U.S. Border Patrol and is part of “Operation Take Back America” 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.
Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).
