Source: Office of United States Attorneys
BEAUMONT, Texas –A Mexican national has pleaded guilty to an immigration violation in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs.
Rigoberto Rodriguez-Moreno, 44, a Mexican national illegally residing in Lufkin, pleaded guilty to illegal reentry by a previously deported person before U.S. Magistrate Judge Christine L. Stetson on June 16, 2025.
According to information presented in court, on March 4, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security and Investigations (HSI) received information that Rodriguez-Moreno was being held in the Angelina County Jail on a state arrest warrant. An HSI investigation determined that Rodriguez-Moreno was previously deported from the United States to Mexico on October 4, 2017, and did not have permission to return to the United States.
Immigration records reveal this was the second time Rodriguez-Moreno was deported. The first deportation occurred in 1999. He has previous federal convictions for bringing in and harboring illegal aliens in 1999 and illegal reentry by a deported person in 2015.
Rodriguez-Moreno faces up to 20 years in federal prison and deportation at sentencing. The maximum statutory sentence prescribed by Congress is provided here for information purposes, as the sentencing will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office. Rodriguez-Moreno still faces unrelated state charges in Angelina County.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).
This case was investigated by the Lufkin Homeland Security Investigations and the Angelina County Sheriff’s Office. This case was prosecuted by the Lufkin Division of the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas.