Illegal Entry Plea, State Drug Charge Draw Consecutive Sentences

A man who pleaded guilty to illegally reentering the US must serve consecutive sentences for also selling a controlled substance in violation of state law, the Second Circuit ruled Friday.

Omar Heredia-Sierra, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, was arrested for the drug offense under New York law in May 2021. A few months later, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York accepted Heredia-Sierra’s guilty plea to the federal reentry charge in September 2021.

In a pre-sentencing letter, Heredia-Sierra requested that the district court sentence him to concurrent imprisonment for the two charges. That request was ...