INDIANAPOLIS — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Indiana, Southern), published as received.

INDIANAPOLIS- A federal jury has found Gilberto Hernandez-Sanchez, 29, of Mexico, guilty of illegal reentry of a removed alien.

According to court documents and evidence introduced at trial, Hernandez-Sanchez was removed from the United States to Mexico in 2021. In 2024, he was arrested at the Plainfield, Indiana Correctional Facility, where he had been incarcerated following a state conviction for domestic battery. 

Hernandez-Sanchez had previously been removed from the United States on four separate occasions. His initial entry occurred on August 5, 2014, when he crossed the Mexican border into the United States without legal documentation or authorization to apply for admission and was promptly removed. He unlawfully re-entered the country and was removed twice more that same month. At an undetermined later date, Hernandez-Sanchez re-entered the United States and was again removed in November 2021. Undeterred, he re-entered in 2022 and was subsequently convicted on state charges.

Hernandez-Sanchez has an extensive criminal history, including convictions for false informing, public intoxication endangering the life of another, domestic battery, battery resulting in bodily injury, and domestic battery resulting in serious bodily injury.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigated this case. U.S. District Judge James P. Hanlon presided over the trial and will sentence Hernandez-Sanchez at a later date.

U.S. Attorney Wheeler thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carolyn Haney and Adam Eakman, who are prosecuting this case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America 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).
 

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