BECKLEY, W.Va. – Flaviano Mateos-Hernandez, 45, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty today to reentry of a removed alien and was remanded to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation proceedings.
According to court documents and statements made in court, on June 7, 2022, ICE agents arrested Mateos-Hernandez in Pineville after identifying him in the course of an investigation. Mateos-Hernandez admitted that he was a citizen of Mexico in the United States illegally and that he had been previously deported from the United States. Mateos-Hernandez had no identification documents permitting him legal status in the United States.
Fingerprints matched Mateos-Hernandez to a prior administrative removal from the United States, which followed his arrest in West Virginia on June 7, 2016. While in West Virginia, Mateos-Hernandez was twice convicted of misdemeanor DUI in Wyoming County Magistrate Court on May 14, 2015, and April 10, 2016. Mateos-Hernandez also twice agreed to voluntarily return to Mexico following arrests in California on August 15, 2002, and Arizona on April 15, 2009. Mateos-Hernandez never obtained the express consent of the Secretary of U.S. Homeland Security to reapply for admission to the United States, nor did he seek to reenter through other legal means.
United States Attorney Will Thompson made the announcement and commended the investigative work of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
United States District Judge Frank W. Volk presided over the hearing, sentencing Mateos-Hernandez to the time he has served in custody since his June 7, 2022 arrest before remanding him to ICE custody. Assistant United States Attorney Erik S. Goes prosecuted the case.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 5:22-cr-128.
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