An El Salvadoran man, Jose Rigoberto Mejia-Cubias, has been sentenced to 24 months in federal prison for unlawful reentry after being removed from the United States. This sentence will be served consecutively to a 25-year sentence he received from the Madison County Mississippi Circuit Court for sexual battery.
Mejia-Cubias was arrested on January 30, 2025, by the Madison Police Department. He was charged with sexual battery against a patron at a local restaurant where he worked as a bartender. After his arrest, immigration authorities determined that Mejia-Cubias was in the country illegally and had previously been deported to El Salvador on August 26, 2010.
He faced both state and federal charges and later pled guilty to both. The announcement of his sentencing was made by Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi Patrick A. Lemon, Eric P. DeLaune, Special Agent-in-Charge for Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans, Louisiana; and Brian Acuna, Acting Field Office Director of ICE/ERO in New Orleans.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kabah Ealy prosecuted the case.
