Armed illegal alien who re-entered country arrested and charged second time

Illegal Alien Who Possessed a Dangerous Weapon in Cook County Jail and Committed an Attempted Vehicular Hijacking Indicted for Allegedly Unlawfully Re-Entering United States after Deportation

An illegal alien who resided in a Chicago suburb has been indicted on a federal immigration charge for allegedly unlawfully re-entering the United States after a deportation.

An indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Chicago charges HECTOR DANIEL GAMBOA-MANTALVO, 30, with one count of unlawful re-entry after deportation and removal.

Gamboa-Mantalvo pleaded not guilty to the charge during his arraignment on Tuesday in federal court in Chicago. A status hearing is set for May 27, 2026, at 10:30 a.m., before U.S. District Judge LaShonda A. Hunt.

Gamboa-Mantalvo, a Mexican national who resided in Palatine, Ill., was removed from the United States in July 2020, the indictment states.

During the arraignment hearing on Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kartik K. Raman advised the Court that Gamboa-Mantalvo was discovered in the United States in 2023 when he was arrested for committing an attempted vehicular hijacking in Palatine.

He was convicted of that offense and has been serving a five-year sentence in the Illinois Department of Corrections. While in pre-trial custody in that case, Gamboa-Mantalvo possessed a dangerous weapon in the Cook County Jail.

He was later convicted of a weapons offense and sentenced to a concurrent term of four years in state custody.

Gamboa-Mantalvo waived his right to a detention hearing on the federal charge and has been ordered into federal custody. The unlawful re-entry charge is punishable by up to twenty years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Defendants convicted of this offense are subject to deportation.

The indictment was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Russell Hott, Field Office Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations in Chicago.

This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. Among other priorities, the HSTF utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.

The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

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Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

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Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.

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