Citizen of Mexico Pleads Guilty to Illegally Reentering the United States

Roanoke, VIRGINIA – A Mexican citizen, who had previously been deported from the United States on two occasions, pleaded guilty earlier this week to illegally reentering the United States, United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle announced.

Edi Jose Manuel, 37, a.k.a. “Edy Manuel,” “Edi Jose-Martinez,” “Edy Manuel Jose,” “Jose Manuel Ramos,” “Jose Manuel,” “Manuel Rams,” “Manuel Perez-Perez,” pleaded guilty this week to being a convicted felon who illegally reentered the United States after being previously deported.

According to evidence presented at Manuel’s guilty plea hearing, the defendant was convicted in 2004 in the Circuit Court of Franklin County for four counts of forging public documents. Manuel was sentenced to prison time and was deported following his prison sentence.

At an unknown time after being deported in 2008, Manuel illegally reentered the United States a second time. On or about August 31, 2017, while incarcerated in the Martinsville City Jail on a driving while intoxicated charge, a fingerprint card for the defendant was submitted and revealed the prior convictions for the defendant. Martinsville Jail officials contacted officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to alert them of the defendant’s presence in the jail. 

The investigation of the case was conducted by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations.  Assistant United States Attorney Charlene R. Day prosecuted the case for the United States.