Francisco Gonzalez-Lopez, 38, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland to illegal reentry of a removed alien stemming from a June 12 traffic stop for speeding in Poland Township.

Sentencing for Gonzalez-Lopez, who is a citizen of Guatemala, will be at 9 a.m. Nov. 24. He is being housed in the Mahoning County jail for the U.S. Marshal’s Service. The federal court’s pretrial / probation department will prepare a presentence investigation report regarding Gonzalez-Lopez’s history so that it is available prior to sentencing. Judge Pamela A. Barker is presiding over the case.

An affidavit written by an agent with U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations stated that Gonzalez-Lopez was one of four men riding in a car that was pulled over by Poland Township police for speeding at about 6 p.m. June 12.

Rafael Tum Pu, who was driving, produced a Guatemalan identification card when asked for his driver’s license, the affidavit states. His wife, Wendy, owned the vehicle.

She was called to the scene to take possession of the vehicle. While there, she “began to cry. Officers asked her why she was crying. She replied because you’re going to deport him, he’s here illegally,” the affidavit states.

Poland Township police then contacted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Removal Operations, which “determined that Gonzalez-Lopez and the other individuals were in the United States illegally,” the affidavit states.

Gonzalez-Lopez and the three others were taken to the Mahoning County jail, and immigration detainers were placed on them. According to Homeland Security records, neither the Attorney General nor the secretary of Homeland Security have granted permission for Gonzalez-Lopez to re-enter the United States, the affidavit states.

The special agent with Homeland Security who wrote the affidavit stated that he went to the Mahoning County jail to see Gonzalez-Lopez. His appearance matched his photograph from his Nov. 1, 2017 arrest from which he was deported, the affidavit states.

The agent spoke to Gonzalez-Lopez in English, which he said he understood. He was read his rights and answered several questions, admitting that he was deported in 2017 and that he re-entered the United States on Oct. 26, 2022, in Arizona. He stated that he “snuck back in and that he did not receive permission to re-enter the United States.”

Based on that information, the agent stated that he believed that Gonzalez-Lopez violated the federal law called reentry into the United States after deportation.

GONZALEZ-LOPEZ HISTORY

Gonzalez-Lopez entered the United States near the Arizona / Mexican border “without inspection” on an unknown date in March of 1998, the affidavit states. In March of 2010, an immigration judge ordered Gonzalez-Lopez to be removed from the United States to Guatemala and denied his application for asylum. The judge approved his voluntary departure until May 16, 2010. Gonzalez-Lopez filed an appeal to the Board. of Immigration Appeals, which was dismissed Dec. 22, 2011 and was given 60 days to voluntarily depart the United States, the document states.

Gonzalez-Lopez filed an emergency stay of removal with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which was granted, and he was placed on an order of supervision by Enforcement Removal Operations in Cleveland pending the 6th circuit appeal.

But on about Nov. 1, 2017, Gonzalez-Lopez was arrested at his home in Salem and was taken to the Cleveland office and processed for removal. On Nov. 15, 2017, he was removed from the United States from Alexandria, La., the document states.