Opinion ID: 31546
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The First Offense

Text: 3 On May 7, 2002, Defendant-Appellant Ricardo Perez-Macias 1 illegally entered the United States; he was arrested the next day. On May 9, he was charged in federal district court in Laredo with a misdemeanor offense of illegal entry in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a) (2000). 2 Perez-Macias is a Mexican citizen with no legal status in the United States who has entered the United States illegally approximately fifteen times. 3 He appeared pro se, entered a plea of guilty, and was sentenced to a three-year term of unsupervised probation and a $10 special assessment. The Immigration and Naturalization Service then allowed Perez-Macias to voluntarily return to Mexico.