A federal jury took just 15 minutes to find a Corpus Christi man guilty. He came back into the country after he got kicked out. Carlos Lopez-Mejia is 46 years old. He also goes by the name Eddi Alberto Lopez-Mejia. His trial lasted just one day.

This case matters here in South Texas. It is part of a bigger push to stop people from sneaking back in. Federal agents want to find people who keep coming back after they get sent home. Lopez-Mejia had already been removed twice before. Trial testimony showed that.

It all started with a traffic stop. On Sept. 6, 2025, officers pulled over a car. The windows were tinted too dark. The stop lamp did not meet state rules either. The driver showed a Mexican ID card. He told officers he was in the country illegally.

Lopez-Mejia sat in the front seat of that car. Officers asked him for ID too. He would not show any. He would not answer questions either. More officers showed up at the scene. Then Lopez-Mejia jumped out of the car. He ran on foot. He ran to a nearby apartment. Officers caught him fast.

Investigators checked his record. They found he had been sent out of the country two times before. The first time was in 2001. The second time was in 2019. Fingerprint tests proved it was really him both times.

At trial, several officers took the stand. They talked about the arrest that day. They talked about his past removals too. Fingerprint evidence backed up his identity. Officers also said Lopez-Mejia never asked to live in the U.S. the legal way. He never filed for any kind of status.

His defense lawyers tried a different angle. They said the old removal records could not be trusted. They said the paperwork was shaky. The jury did not buy it. Jurors found him guilty as charged. They reached that call in under 15 minutes.

His charge is called illegal reentry. That means he came back after he got kicked out. It is a federal crime. It can mean years behind bars. U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos ran the trial. She set sentencing for Oct. 7. Lopez-Mejia faces up to two years in federal prison. He will stay in jail until that hearing.

ICE runs the case. Its HSI agents led the work. That stands for Homeland Security Investigations. Texas's DPS also helped out. Two federal lawyers took the case to trial. Izaak Bruce and Zachary Bird work for the U.S. Attorney's Office in South Texas.

The case falls under Operation Take Back America. That is a nationwide push by the Justice Department. It targets people who sneak back in. It also targets smuggling groups and cartels along the border. The U.S. Attorney's office in South Texas has filed many cases like this one this year.

For families in Nueces County and across South Texas, cases like this show up often in federal co