COLUMBUS — A 42-year-old man from Mexico pleaded guilty in federal court in Columbus on Thursday, Oct. 15, to illegally reentering the United States after previously being convicted of a felony, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio announced.
Jamie Cruz-Bobadilla entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson. Federal prosecutors said he had previously been convicted of cocaine trafficking crimes, a history that makes the reentry charge a felony carrying a maximum possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
According to court documents described by prosecutors, Columbus police officers encountered Cruz-Bobadilla during a traffic stop in February 2025. He gave officers a false identity, prosecutors said, but his true identity was confirmed through fingerprints and immigration photographs.
That identification unraveled the timeline at the heart of the case. Prosecutors said Cruz-Bobadilla had been deported in 2012 after serving a prison term, and that he was back in the United States illegally when Columbus officers stopped him last year.
The earlier convictions date to the spring of 2012, when Cruz-Bobadilla was convicted in Wake County, North Carolina, of four felonies related to cocaine trafficking, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was deported that same year following his prison term.
Illegal reentry after a felony conviction is treated more seriously under federal law than a first-time immigration violation, and prosecutors noted the charge in this case is punishable by up to a decade behind bars. The actual sentence will be set by the court rather than by the plea itself.
Sentencing will be determined at a future hearing, based on the federal advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors the judge is required to consider. No sentencing date was announced with the plea.
The guilty plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II, by Jeremy Pierczynski, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Detroit, and by Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin W. Kelley is representing the United States in the case, which now moves from the plea stage to sentencing in Columbus. The case began as a Columbus police traffic stop, and the identification made during that stop became the foundation of the federal prosecution in the Southern District of Ohio.
