Man Sentenced for Illegally Reentering the United States After Being Removed

A man who illegally returned to the United States after being removed was sentenced September 11, 2025, to 127 days' imprisonment.

Gerardo Santis-Jiron, also known as Pedro Simon Rivera-Perez, age 36, a citizen of Guatemala, received the prison term after a June 10, 2025 guilty plea to one count of being found in the United States after illegal reentry.

At the guilty plea, Santis-Jiron admitted he had previously been removed from the United States and illegally reentered the United States without the permission of the United States government. Santis-Jiron was previously removed in 2009. On April 27, 2025, immigration officials found him at the Linn County Jail following his arrest on state charges for operating while under the influence.

Santis-Jiron was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand. Santis-Jiron was sentenced to 127 days' imprisonment. He must also serve a one-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Santis-Jiron is being held in the United States Marshal's custody until he can be turned over to immigration officials.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America (https://www.justice.gov/dag/media/1393746/dl?inline) a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces

(OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Adam J. Vander Stoep and was investigated by Enforcement and Removal Operations of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file number is 25-CR-36.

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