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TYLER, Texas – The Eastern District of Texas U.S. Attorney Damien M. Diggs announced that an El Salvadorian man has been sentenced to federal prison for immigration violations.
Robert Daniel Argueta-Lopez, 51, pleaded guilty to being illegally in the United States and was sentenced to 140 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker on September 12, 2024.
According to information presented in court, on July 9, 2022, local law enforcement stopped a car driven by Argueta in Van Zandt County and arrested him on state charges. After being booked into the Van Zandt County Jail, federal law enforcement found Argueta in the Eastern District of Texas and determined that he was without lawful immigration status in the United States. The investigation determined that Argueta was a citizen and national of El Salvador and had previously been deported or removed from the United States on December 13, 2007, April 25, 2012, and July 30, 2021. Argueta’s first removal followed a state conviction for first-degree murder in Tarrant County in 1994. His second removal followed a federal conviction for illegal reentry after deportation in the Northern District of Texas in 2008. His third removal followed a federal conviction for assault on a federal officer in the Southern District of Texas in 2013.
DHS Immigration Customs Enforcement-Enforcement Removal Operations, Homeland Security Investigations, the Wills Point Police Department, and the Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Hurst was the prosecutor.