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A Cuban citizen identified as Marcos Ismael Escobar-Sosa was arrested near Mission, Texas, after illegally re-entering the United States just three months after his deportation, and now faces up to 20 years in federal prison, according to an official statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas issued on May 29.
The accusation indicates that Escobar-Sosa was last deported from the United States on February 6 of this year and that he has a criminal record for credit card fraud, a crime classified as a felony under federal law.
His case was presented in court on May 21 under number 7:26-mj-02024 in the Southern District of Texas, with federal public defender Judith Odette Pena as his representative and prosecutor Ryan K. Sim from the Department of Justice as the accusing party.
The maximum penalty of 20 years is explained by federal law 8 U.S.C. § 1326, which criminalizes unlawful reentry after deportation and increases the penalty to that limit when the prior expulsion occurred following a conviction for an aggravated felony, a category that can include credit card fraud.
The case of Escobar-Sosa was announced as part of Operation Take Back America, a national initiative by the Department of Justice launched under the Trump administration to combat illegal immigration and dismantle transnational criminal organizations.
In the same week that the Cuban was detected, authorities filed charges against 259 individuals for immigration-related offenses in the Southern District of Texas: 160 for illegal reentry, 69 for illegal entry, 28 for human trafficking, and the rest for other immigration offenses and possession of firearms.
Interim federal prosecutor John G.E. Marck emphasized that many of the accused have criminal records related to drug trafficking, violent crimes, and other serious offenses.
This is not the first case of a Cuban facing this situation in 2026. Other compatriots arrested in Texas for illegal reentry after deportation have faced similar charges, in a pattern of federal prosecution that has intensified since the current administration took office.
In January of this year, another Cuban arrested in Miami-Dade also faced up to 20 years in prison for the same crime, highlighting the systematic enforcement of the maximum penalties established by federal law in these cases.
Since the start of Operation Recovering the United States, the Southern District of Texas has charged a total of 13,867 individuals, including 6,574 for illegal reentry and 889 for human trafficking, establishing itself as one of the most active prosecutors' offices in the country regarding immigration matters.
The statement from the Prosecutor's Office reminds that "a formal accusation or criminal complaint is an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence," and that "the accused is presumed innocent unless declared guilty through the due legal process."
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