A man facing federal prison for repeatedly entering the country after being deported, pointed to his five children seated behind him in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg on Tuesday, then started crying.
“I have returned to this country to [continue] to feed my family,” Reynaldo Evelio Guillen Lobo said, speaking through an interpreter. “Everything I have done, I have done for them.”
Guillen Lobo, 35, of Honduras, pleaded guilty in May to a felony count of illegally re-entering the United States after deportation. He returned to court Tuesday for sentencing.
According to court testimony, Guillen Lobo has illegally entered the United States five times, four times after having been deported.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Glen Conrad sentenced Guillen Lobo to three years and nine months in prison. After serving his sentence, Guillen Lobo will likely be deported, Conrad said.
Conrad said the punishment was more than that suggested by federal sentencing guidelines because he wants to deter others from committing the same crimes.
He also said he increased the sentence because the guidelines didn’t account for all Guillen Lobo’s illegal re-entries.
The Case
A federal grand jury indicted Guillen Lobo in January on three counts of illegally entering the United States. The indictment followed Guillen Lobo’s November arrest for giving a fake name to a police officer, according to court records.
The indictment alleges that authorities have encountered Guillen Lobo in Harrisonburg three times since 2001, each time following a deportation.
According to a memo Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials filed in the case, the U.S. Border Patrol also encountered Guillen Lobo in Corpus Christi, Texas, and deported him in 2003.
The memo also states that since 1993, Guillen Lobo has been convicted of numerous crimes in U.S. courts, including making false statements to obtain credit, forging a public record, attempted burglary, child neglect and failing to stop for a police officer.
Most convictions occurred in Rockingham County Circuit Court.
On May 1, Guillen Lobo pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of aggravated illegal re-entry, a felony. The other two counts of the federal indictment were dropped in exchange for his plea.
The Defense
In court, Fred Heblich, of the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Charlottesville, said Guillen Lobo’s efforts to remain in the country undetected led to many of his crimes.
In January 2001, police attempted to pull Guillen Lobo over for speeding, but he eluded them, Heblich said, because he didn’t have a driver’s license and didn’t want to get caught.
The pursuit was not a high-speed chase, Heblich told the judge. But, because Guillen Lobo had his children in the car, he also was convicted of four counts of child neglect, Heblich said.
Referring to some of his other convictions, Guillen Lobo told Conrad that he did not intend to commit fraud but falsely identified himself on documents because he was in the United States under a false name.
Conrad told Guillen Lobo that many others illegally enter the United States without becoming involved in criminal activity, and that his behavior warranted prison time.
Because Guillen Lobo’s five children are U.S. citizens, the government will help them get passports should he want to take them to Honduras with him, assuming he is deported there after his release, authorities said in court.
Jesus Correa, a pastor with Casa de Oracion, a church in Harrisonburg, attended the hearing with Guillen Lobo’s five sons, ages 2 through 13.
After the hearing, Correa said the boys live in Harrisonburg with their mother.
Several of the boys said that the United States is their home, they go to school here and they’ve never lived anywhere else.
One said he’s never even visited Honduras.
“It’s sad,” said Eric, Guillen Lobo’s 13-year-old son. “He’s been a great father.”
By David Reynolds
