Eladio Pascual-Gaspar

Convicted and sentenced. Pascual-Gaspar, 28, pleaded guilty to illegal reentry after deportation and was sentenced to 31 months in federal prison.

Introduction

Eladio Pascual-Gaspar, a 28-year-old Guatemalan national, was sentenced to 31 months in federal prison for illegally returning to the United States after being deported, in a case announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama on September 25, 2026 . U.S. District Judge Corey L. Maze imposed the sentence after Pascual-Gaspar pleaded guilty to illegal reentry after deportation . The reentry charge did not stand alone in his record: prosecutors tied it to a 2021 armed-robbery plea in Mississippi and to a June 2026 encounter in Talladega in which, by the government’s account, he claimed a towed car using a false identity built on another man’s name .

Background Information

Pascual-Gaspar entered the United States illegally in May 2015 as an unaccompanied minor and was released the next month on an Order of Release on Recognizance to a sponsor . In April 2021, he pleaded guilty in the Circuit Court of Madison County, Mississippi, to aiding and abetting armed robbery — the state conviction that preceded his removal . In May 2023 he was removed from the United States, and the reentry that followed is the conduct the federal charge punishes . Homeland Security Investigations worked the case with the Talladega County Drug Task Force, and Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Patrick Lamb prosecuted .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

The June 2026 encounter that produced the federal case began with a traffic stop: Talladega Police encountered a 15-year-old, unaccompanied, illegal alien driving a car registered to Henry Vegas Mondragon, and the vehicle was towed . Pascual-Gaspar then appeared at the tow lot to claim the car, presenting false Guatemalan identification and documents in the alias name Henry Vegas Mondragon — the registered owner’s name, used as his own . The false-identity claim is what put a previously deported felon back in federal custody, and his guilty plea converted the tow-lot encounter into the reentry conviction . The announcement’s account presents the alias not as an isolated fake ID but as the operating identity he carried three years after removal .

Public Reaction and Consequences

U.S. Attorney Phillip W. Williams Jr. framed the sentence around the prior removal: “This defendant was released from a state prison and deported in 2023. He illegally reentered the United States and engaged in further criminal activity. This conduct will not be tolerated” . He added that the office would “continue to work with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable those who enter our country illegally and engage in criminal conduct” . Ellen Johnson, Acting Special Agent in Charge of HSI in Georgia and Alabama, said the sentence sends “a clear message: those who disregard our immigration laws, use false identities, and engage in criminal activity will be held accountable” . The case is styled as part of Operation Take Back America, the department’s immigration-and-violent-crime initiative .

Current Status

Pascual-Gaspar, 28, is serving his 31-month sentence imposed by Judge Maze for the reentry conviction . As a deported noncitizen convicted of reentry, his sentence will be followed by removal proceedings — the announcement does not spell out the post-custody immigration path, but a reentry conviction reinstates the removal that preceded it .

Impact on Their Career/Life

Pascual-Gaspar’s trajectory — unaccompanied minor at fifteen, state armed-robbery conviction at twenty, deportation at twenty-five, federal reentry conviction at twenty-eight — is the lifecycle the reentry statute was written to interrupt. The tow-lot alias made his case the district’s example of how false identity converts an immigration violation into a documented fraud on state processes, from a car registration to a police encounter. Thirty-one months in federal custody will be followed, on the current record, by a second removal, with any future reentry now facing the sentencing escalation the statute reserves for repeat offenders.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Alabama, “OPERATION TAKE BACK AMERICA: Guatemalan National Sentenced to More than 2 Years in Prison for Illegally Re-entering After Being Deported,” September 25, 2026 — source