In Eastern Pennsylvania today, Yovany Basurto and Cristhian Vega-Guerra faced the legal consequences of their actions, having illegally reentered the United States post-deportation. Basurto, a 33-year-old Mexican national, was sentenced to the exact amount of time he had previously served — three months — by United States District Court Judge Joseph F. Leeson Jr. Basurto’s series of illegal reentries and subsequent interactions with the law resulted in a DUI arrest by Bridgeport Borough (Pa.) Police, which sent him to ICE enforcement, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania report.
Vega-Guerra, an Ecuadorian national aged 34, faced a similar fate when US District Court Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg sentenced him to time served, this time for three months. ICE initiated an investigation into his residence status in January 2025, which proved his illegal presence and led to his guilty plea and today’s sentence. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania reported that Vega-Guerra’s criminal history began with a Border Patrol arrest in Eagle Pass, Texas, in March 2023 and concluded with his deportation in August of that same year.
Following today’s sentencing, US Attorney David Metcalf issued a harsh warning, emphasizing that the cycle of unlawful return will be punished with increased sanctions. “Illegal immigration strains our public services, endangers our citizens, and insults the rule of law,” Metcalf told the crowd. “If you keep coming into this country illegally, know that we will keep prosecuting you, and the penalties will keep getting steeper,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated.
Brian McShane, the ICE ERO Philadelphia Field Office Director, emphasized the consequences of violating US immigration law. “Yovany Basurto and Cristhian Vega-Guerra showed complete disregard for our nation’s immigration laws by repeatedly violating them and are therefore subject to removal,” he stated, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations conducted thorough investigations that led to the enforcement actions and subsequent charges, which were handled by Assistant United States Attorneys Robert Schopf and Rebecca Kulik.
