A 35-year-old Mexican national who paid a smuggler $2,500 in 2011 to get back into the U.S. after being deported was sentenced for an immigration law violation Tuesday following a December arrest on Hawaii island for driving drunk without a license.
Benjamin Hernandez Loma entered into a plea agreement April 1 with the U.S. Department of Justice to plead guilty to one count of illegal reentry of a removed alien, a crime punishable by up to two years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
Loma, who was living in Hilo, left the U.S. voluntarily following a 2006 arrest but was deported in 2009 and 2011 after he was caught back in the U.S. illegally.
Chief U.S. District Judge Derrick K. Watson sentenced Loma to time served. Loma must pay a $100 special assessment, according to federal court records.
“The defendant’s conviction in this case makes it practically inevitable and a virtual certainty that the defendant will be removed or deported from the United States,” read the plea agreement. “The defendant may also be denied United States citizenship and admission to the United States in the future.”
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Craig S. Nolan and Darren W.K. Ching are prosecuting the case. Loma was represented by the Office of the Federal Public Defender.
Hernandez Loma was removed from Salinas, Calif., in 2011 after he was arrested.
On Feb. 8, 2020, Hernandez Loma was arrested by officers with the Hawaii Police Department on suspicion of drunken driving and driving without a license.
He did not appear in court, and a contempt warrant was issued.
On Dec. 16, Hernandez Loma was arrested on suspicion of driving drunk, without a license, and with an open container of liquor in his car.
Arresting and prosecuting people who violate immigration laws is a top priority of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Federal agents arrested 50 people May 5-9 on Oahu, Maui and Hawaii island for violating immigration laws due to convictions for crimes including murder, domestic violence and drug possession.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations Hawaii worked with federal law enforcement partners to target immigration violations.
The immigration raids did not involve county police departments or state law enforcement agencies.
ICE officials did not provide the names of those arrested or disclose a breakdown of the 50 arrests by island.
Hernandez Loma’s sentencing for violating immigration law comes eight days after a Mexican national in the U.S. illegally since 1990 was charged for allegedly stealing his daughter’s Social Security number to falsely claim citizenship, open a business bank account and get a temporary Hawaii identification card.
The daughter of Samuel Angel Nieto, aka “Angel Nieto” and “Angel David Nieto Garcia,” a native of Mazatlan, Mexico, told Homeland Security Investigations agents that she found out her dad stole her identity when she filed taxes for the first time.
Her refund was sent to child support services in Hawaii, where Nieto allegedly had a boy with another woman.
Nieto allegedly claimed he was born in California, and is believed to be 49 years old.
He was charged April 24 by federal criminal complaint with one count of making a false statement within the jurisdiction of a U.S. agency, three counts of making a false claim of U.S. citizenship, four counts of aggravated identity theft and one count of making a false statement to a federally insured financial institution.
Nieto submitted to detention May 5, according to federal court records.
