El Salvador Man Indicted By Federal Grand Jury For 4th Illegal Reentry

ALEXANDRIA, VA — An El Salvador man who was stopped last month by customs agents as he was about to board a flight leaving Washington Dulles International Airport was indicted Thursday for reentering the U.S. after he'd previously been removed three times, according to court documents.

In February, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol enforcement officer was alerted that the name and birth date of a passenger booked on a Feb. 26 international flight matched those of a man wanted on an active warrant out of Maryland, according an affidavit for probable cause filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

After a review of immigration records, the CBP officer determined that Carlos Alberto Garcia-Arias was a native of El Salvador who was first removed from the U.S. in January 2014 at or near Alexandria, Louisiana, according to the affidavit. Prior to that, he had been convicted in Washington, D.C. on a charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

Garcia-Arias reentered the country on some unknown date before being removed for a second time on May 30, 2018, at or near Hidalgo, Texas, according to court records.

On April 20, 2020, Garcia-Arias was convicted of illegal reentry in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, which determined that he did not have legal authorization to reenter the U.S, according to the affidavit. He was then removed for a third time near San Antonio, Texas on Oct. 27, 2020.

When Garcia-Arias arrived for his flight on Feb. 26, he was detained by CBP officers and his fingerprints were taken. They were then processed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to court records. The fingerprints were compared to earlier fingerprints of Garcia-Arias found in criminal records maintained by the FBI. The new fingerprints matched those in the FBI database.

During an interview following his arrest at Dulles Airport, Garcia-Arias admitted that he'd been removed from the U.S. on three previous occasions and knew that he was not allowed to reenter the country, according to court records.

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Garcia-Arias also admitted that he'd been arrested and convicted of crimes on two previous occasions and never applied to U.S. Customs and Immigration Services for permission to reenter the country, according to court records.

On Thursday, a federal grand jury in Alexandria indicted Garcia-Arias on a charge of illegal reentry after removal subsequent to an aggravated conviction, court records say.

Garci-Arias is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. on Wednesday in Alexandria Courtroom 900 before District Judge Anthony J. Trenga

Under U.S. law, Garcia-Arias faces up to two years imprisonment for unlawful re-entry, which increases to a maximum sentence of 20 years if the initial removal followed a conviction for an aggravated felony.