Unlawfully present Jamaican citizen sentenced to 21 months for reentering the US

MADISON, Wis. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Chicago Field Office Director LaDeon Francis and U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin Timothy M. O’Shea announced that Andre Bowyer, 32, a citizen of Jamaica, was sentenced Oct. 26 by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 21 months in federal prison for illegally reentering the United States. Bowyer pleaded guilty to this charge on Aug. 16.

On June 9, officials arrested Bowyer in Grant County during a mail fraud investigation where he was using a fake name. ICE became aware of Bowyer’s presence following a fingerprint match during the booking process. The noncitizen admitted to paying a smuggler to bring him across the Mexican border into the United States in April or May 2022.

In 2017, Bowyer was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud in the Eastern District of Louisiana. That case involved a scheme to defraud elderly and vulnerable victims of their money through a fake lottery in which conspirators contacted victims through internet phone calls. Following his prison sentence in that case, Bowyer was removed from the United States to Jamaica in March 2022. As a condition of his removal and his supervised release from his mail fraud case, Bowyer was ordered not to reenter the United States. The Jamaican citizen was still on supervised release in the fraud case at the time of his 2023 arrest and faces revocation in that case.

In sentencing Bowyer on the illegal reentry charge, Conley noted that the unlawfully present man came back to the United States in 2022 shortly after his removal. He also expressed concern that it appeared Bowyer had returned to engaging in fraud given the circumstances of his arrest in Grant County, where he was arrested using a false name and attempted to pick up a mail parcel containing $18,000 in cash.

The charge against Bowyer was the result of an ICE investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven P. Anderson prosecuted this case.

As one of ICE’s three operational directorates, ERO is the principal federal law enforcement authority in charge of domestic immigration enforcement. ERO’s mission is to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of U.S. communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and its primary areas of focus are interior enforcement operations, management of the agency’s detained and non-detained populations, and repatriation of noncitizens who have received final orders of removal. ERO’s workforce consists of more than 7,700 law enforcement and non-law enforcement support personnel across 25 domestic field offices and 208 locations nationwide, 30 overseas postings, and multiple temporary duty travel assignments along the border.

Members of the public can report crimes or suspicious activity by calling 866-347-2423 or completing ICE’s online tip form.

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