Jury convicts foreign child sex offender of re-entering the US after deportation

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Following a two-day jury trial, a Mexican national with a prior conviction for a child sex offense has been found guilty on felony charges of re-entering the United States following deportation.

Nicasio Roman, 49, was convicted Tuesday. According to testimony presented at the trial, Roman had been deported three times, and in 2006 had been convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14, in the Stanislaus County Superior Court.

This case is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michele Beckwith and Michael D. Anderson handled the prosecution.

"As today's verdict demonstrates, we will not allow criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety to treat our border like a revolving door," said Erik Bonnar, deputy field office director for ERO San Francisco. "ICE is committed to using its unique immigration enforcement authorities to ensure that our communities are protected from those who show no regard for our laws or our borders."

Roman is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 1 by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.