Luis Gerardo Gomez-Esteban is our Minnesota Man of the Week. Gomez is a 36-year-old Guatemalan.
We have been tracking felony cases brought in federal district court for re-entry of previously deported illegal aliens. Specifically, cases brought since Donald Trump resumed the Presidency this past January. We are now up to 78 such cases.
Mr. Gomez appears to be the very first one, indicted back on February 4. He pled guilty to the charge back in March. Finally, he was sentenced yesterday (Thursday) to 21 months in prison. That represents the longest sentence that we have seen imposed among this group. Presumably, after serving his prison sentence, Gomez will be returned to Guatemala, once again.
As part of the plea agreement, at sentencing yesterday, a second count in the indictment, for failure to register as a sex offender, was dismissed.
Prosecutors had documented how Gomez had been deported in May 2019 to his native Guatemala but returned to the United States. This followed his convection on three (3) felony counts involving child molestation. That conviction occurred in Washington state in 2015, and his 2019 deportation came after he served his state prison sentence.
In November 2024, Gomez was arrested in Inver Grove Heights for drunk driving. Records show that he had been in the area since at least April 2024, when he took a drivers test at a local Minnesota DMV office.
Between that April drivers test and his November drunk driving arrest, Gomez received four traffic citations, which list his local address as Minneapolis. These citations note that while Gomez did not have a drivers license (or insurance or current plates) he did have a state-issued identity card.
State court records show Gomez living in Minnesota in 2011, with a St. Louis Park address.
Adios, Luis.