Pedro Ramirez Covarrubias, a 53-year-old Mexican national residing in Adair County, Oklahoma, has pleaded guilty to unlawful reentry of a removed alien. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Covarrubias faces up to twenty years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
The case resulted from an investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division. According to the indictment, Covarrubias was found in the United States on December 3, 2025, without permission from the Secretary of Homeland Security after previously being removed on October 14, 2021. He had been convicted of first-degree murder on May 6, 2015, in Harris County, Texas.
This prosecution is part of Operation Take Back America. The initiative aims to use all resources available to the Department of Justice to address illegal immigration and target cartels and transnational criminal organizations.
U.S. Magistrate Judge D. Edward Snow accepted Covarrubias’s plea and ordered a presentence investigation report. Sentencing will be determined by a U.S. District Court Judge after considering federal guidelines and statutory factors.
Covarrubias remains in custody with the United States Marshals Service until sentencing. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Wittlinger represented the government in this case.
