CEDAR RAPIDS – A Guatemalan man who had previously been deported following a federal conviction for unlawfully using identification documents was sentenced on September 18, 2017, to two years in federal prison.
Luis Eduardo Toj-Gomez, age 25, a citizen of Guatemala who had been living in Postville, Iowa, received the prison term after a June 2, 2017, guilty plea to one count of illegal reentry of a removed alien after a felony conviction.
At the guilty plea, Toj-Gomez admitted he illegally reentered the United States without permission after having been deported from the United States in November 2015. Prior to his deportation, Toj-Gomez was convicted in July 2015 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa on two counts of unlawful use of identification documents, felony offenses. Toj-Gomez had also been convicted of assault causing bodily injury in Allamakee County, Iowa, and operating while under the influence of alcohol in Fayette County, Iowa.
Toj-Gomez was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge Linda R. Reade. Toj-Gomez was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment. This sentence consisted of a 10-month sentence for violating the conditions of supervised release on the 2015 unlawful use of identification documents conviction and a 14-month sentence on the 2017 illegal reentry conviction. A special assessment of $100 was imposed. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Toj-Gomez is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel C. Tvedt and investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations.
