Dominican Man Sentenced To Illegally Reentering The United States
Monday, April 28, 2025, 4:40 P.M. ET. 2 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,
PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Last Wednesday, a 42-year-old Dominican national illegally residing in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will be spending the next 15 months in federal prison after being sentenced for illegally reentering the United States after having been previously removed on four separate occasions.
On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, Melvin Gutierrez-Almonte, 42, of the Dominican Republic, appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph F. Leeson, Jr., to 15 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release for Illegally Reentry into the United States by a Previously Deported Alien.
According to U.S. Attorney David Metcalf, Gutierrez-Almonte was charged by indictment in September 2024 and appeared in Federal Court in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in January 2025 and pleaded guilty to the charge. During his plea allocution in January, Gutierrez-Almonte admitted that he reentered the United States in April 2023, crossing from Mexico into Arizona.
According to U.S. immigration records, Gutierrez-Almonte had been removed from the United States on four prior occasions, on or about March 1, 2011, September 27, 2016, March 20, 2018, and again on September 1, 2020, and did not obtain permission or legal authorization to reenter the United States. Gutierrez-Almonte has three illegal reentry convictions, all in the District of Puerto Rico.
As detailed in the charging documents filed in the District Court, on May 18, 2024, Gutierrez-Almonte was taken into custody by members of the West New York Police Department in Hudson County, New Jersey, and was criminally charged with simple assault and receiving stolen property. The case remains pending in Hudson County Superior Court, and a detainer has been lodged for the charges.
Then, on July 10, 2024, Gutierrez-Almonte was arrested by members of the Philadelphia Police Department under an alias, “Conjeo Almonet,” on the charges of aggravated assault, possession of an instrument of a crime, and simple assault. The next day, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials received biometric notification of the Philadelphia arrest.
Gutierrez-Almonte was subsequently charged by federal criminal complaint with illegal reentry, and on September 3, 2024, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Enforcement and Removal Operations officer arrested Gutierrez-Almonte following his release from Philadelphia custody.
Upon completion of his federal term of imprisonment, Gutierrez-Almonte will be transferred to the Custody of the Hudson County Sheriff’s Office to answer to the pending charges in New Jersey and will then be removed from the country.
