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Gulfport, Miss. – Vianey Cortes-Hipolito, 37, a citizen of Mexico, pled guilty yesterday before U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola, Jr., to the crime of unlawful re-entry by an alien after removal, announced U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst and Joseph Banco, Chief Patrol Agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s New Orleans Sector.
Cortes-Hipolito is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Guirola on April 25, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. She faces a potential maximum penalty of two years in prison, one year of supervised release, a $250,000 fine, and a special assessment of $100.
On November 28, 2017, a truck in which Cortes-Hipolito was a passenger was stopped by a Gautier police officer on Interstate-10 in Jackson County, Mississippi, for speeding. While the truck was designed to seat five people, the police officer observed that, in addition to the driver, there were six additional passengers in the vehicle. The passengers provided Mexican identification documents and they could not be identified by the driver. The U.S. Border Patrol was notified, and a Border Patrol Agent responded to the scene.
During the investigation, it was determined that none of the passengers had proper documentation and all were illegally present in the United States. All six passengers of the vehicle were arrested. Further investigation revealed that Cortes-Hipolito previously had been removed from the United States on November 2, 2017 by the Department of Homeland Security after a lawful removal order had been issued.
U.S. Attorney Hurst praised the cooperation exhibited by the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Border Patrol, and the Gautier Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Stan Harris is the prosecutor for the case.
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