Pedro Raymundo Perez, a 49-year-old Guatemalan man who was removed from the United States in 2019 for sexual battery and abduction, was encountered by federal authorities at the Gordie Howe International Bridge in Detroit on the evening of Oct. 18, 2026. According to a federal complaint, Perez had no record of permission to return to the U.S. and was subsequently arrested.
Federal authorities stated that Perez was a passenger in a vehicle that mistakenly entered lanes designated for traffic heading to Canada. After the driver began backing up, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers intervened, pulling in behind the vehicle with emergency lights activated. Perez allegedly informed officers he was from Guatemala and possessed no immigration documents, as detailed in the complaint filed on Oct. 19. The driver, identified as Perez’s son, corroborated his father's lack of authorization to be in the United States. Following these statements, officers escorted Perez to a secondary inspection area for further processing.
At the secondary inspection, federal authorities conducted fingerprint checks. These checks matched Perez to prior arrests and various immigration actions. Records showed that Perez had been arrested in Warren in November 2017 for driving without a license. Furthermore, records indicated that Perez matched an outstanding warrant that originated from a 2011 arrest in Ohio. These charges from Ohio involved felony rape and kidnapping.
Perez was extradited to the Tuscarawas County Jail in New Philadelphia, Ohio, in December 2017, in connection with the Ohio warrant. In October 2018, he was convicted in Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court of the lesser offenses of sexual battery and abduction, according to court records. Following his conviction, Perez was sentenced to time served. He had been incarcerated from Dec. 22, 2017, to Oct. 26, 2018, before his release to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) office in Cleveland.
An immigration judge in Cleveland issued an order for Perez's removal on June 10, 2019. He was then sent to Guatemala on July 3, 2019, with travel routed through Alexandria, Louisiana, as detailed in the federal complaint.
Subsequent checks of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases by federal authorities found no record that Perez had ever received permission from either the attorney general or the Homeland Security secretary to apply for admission to the U.S. again after his removal. A separate search also confirmed there was no record of him having lawfully arrived in the United States, nor had he ever been inspected, admitted, or paroled by a U.S. border official.
CBP arrested Perez on Oct. 19, 2026, for administrative processing. This action aims to reinstate his prior removal order. Records confirm that Perez appeared before a magistrate on Oct. 20 and remains detained. A Detention Hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 22 at 1:00 p.m. in Detroit.