United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa
03/24/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/24/2026 13:05
Guatemalan Man Guilty of Illegal Reentry and Failure to Register as a Sex Offender
Sergio Niz-Mendez, age 27, from Guatemala, pled guilty to illegal reentry and failure to register as a sex offender on March 23, 2026, in federal court in Sioux City.
At the plea hearing, Niz-Mendez admitted he was a citizen of Guatemala, that he had previously been removed from the United States in 2018, and that he had not sought permission to legally be in the United States. He further admitted that due to a 2016 rape of a child with force conviction in Massachusetts, he was required to register as a sex offender which he failed to do. Niz-Mendez was found in O'Brien County, Iowa, after he was arrested for operating while intoxicated and eluding.
Sentencing before United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand will be set after a presentence report is complete. He remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. For the illegal reentry conviction, he faces a maximum sentence of two years' imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and one year of supervised release. For the failure to register conviction, he faces a maximum of 10 years' imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and five years to life of supervise release.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Patrick T. Greenwood and was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.plLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the "external link" icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link..
The case file number is 25-CR-4065. Follow us on X @USAO_NDIA.
United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa published this content on March 24, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on March 24, 2026 at 19:05 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]