BUFFALO, N.Y. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Gilberto Guadalupe Guevara-Barboza, a 26-year-old Mexican national and self-admitted member of the Paisas gang, upon his release from federal prison in New York, officials announced.
Guevara, who has repeatedly entered the United States illegally, was taken into ICE custody on Thursday after completing a nine-month prison sentence for illegal reentry at the Federal Correctional Institution in Ray Brook. He is currently in ICE custody awaiting removal to Mexico.
Key Points
- Gilberto Guevara-Barboza has been removed from the U.S. three times and has multiple convictions including drug possession and illegal reentry.
- He is a self-admitted member of the Paisas gang and reentered the U.S. without inspection as recently as 2022.
- ICE arrested Guevara after his release from federal prison and he is currently in custody pending removal to Mexico.
Guevara has been removed from the United States three times. His first voluntary departure was granted in July 2015, and he left through the McAllen, Texas, port of entry the following month. He reentered without authorization and was ordered removed by an immigration judge in Virginia in January 2016.
Despite repeated removals, Guevara entered the U.S. two more times without inspection. In 2022, he again admitted to unlawfully crossing the border without admission or parole from an immigration official.
He was convicted in Hidalgo County, Texas, in May 2024 of marijuana possession and resisting arrest and was sentenced to probation. ICE encountered him the following month and issued a notice to reinstate the prior order of removal.
In November, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas sentenced Guevara to nine months in prison for illegal reentry, marking his second federal conviction for returning to the U.S. unlawfully.
