Dominican National sentenced to Federal Prison for illegal re-entry

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Cunha has announced that a Dominican National who has re-entered the United States twice illegally after removal by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been sentenced to 14 months in federal prison.

46-year old Alinson Santana, who has gone under ten separate aliases, five Social Security numbers, and five dates of birth, plead guilty on December 16 to Illegal Reentry.

According to charging documents shown to the court, Santana was arrested by Woonsocket Police in October for a separate matter. Santana’s true identity was found when US immigration & Customs Enforcement officials got the results from a biometric fingerprint comparison from the FBI which matched Santana’s fingerprint in a prior arrest.

U.S. Immigration records showed the defendant had been removed from the United States twice due to Immigration Court orders, with the first removal in November 2007, from Alexandria Louisiana back to the Dominican Republic. He was removed a second time in September 2017. Before the second removal he plead guilty to U.S. District Court in Providence on a charge of illegal reentry.

On Thursday morning, U.S. District Judge William E. Smith sentenced Santana to 14 months in federal prison followed by 3 years of supervised release.