Evergreen Reporter

A man who illegally returned to the United States after being deported was sentenced today to more than three years in federal prison.

Pedro Salazar-Trejo, age 37, a citizen of Mexico illegally present in the United States and residing in Coralville, Iowa, received the prison term after a May 10, 2024, guilty plea to one count of illegal reentry into the United States after having been deported following a conviction for an aggravated felony.

At the guilty plea, Salazar-Trejo admitted he had previously been deported from the United States and illegally reentered without permission from the United States government. Salazar-Trejo has prior convictions in Texas for forgery of government documents—a social security card and driver’s license—in 2005 and fleeing the scene of an accident in 2008. He was first deported in March 2008. Salazar-Trejo was deported a second time in May 2014 following a conviction in the Southern District of Texas for illegal entry into the United States. He was deported a third time in December 2017 following his arrest during a traffic stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, by immigration officials. He was also deported a fourth time in September 2019 following a conviction in the Western District of Texas for Illegal Reentry of a Deported Alien, a felony.

Salazar-Trejo was convicted in January 2022 in the Northern District of Iowa of possession of a firearm by an alien, served 27 months’ imprisonment and placed on a three-year term of supervised release before being deported a fifth time in September 2023. On March 22, 2024, Salazar-Trejo was arrested again in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for violating the terms of his supervised release by reentering without permission.

Salazar-Trejo was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. Salazar-Trejo received 30 months’ imprisonment and must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after his prison term. Additionally, he was sentenced to another consecutive 12 months’ imprisonment for violating terms related to his prior firearm conviction's supervised release. There is no parole within the federal system.

Salazar-Trejo is currently held under United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel C. Tvedt and investigated by Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Enforcement and Removal Operations.

Court file information can be accessed at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl with case file numbers: 24-CR-27 and 21-CR-48.

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