U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr sentenced Fernando Salvador Perez Morales to 74 months in federal prison after the Mexican national pled guilty to illegal reentry, a case that followed his seventh driving while intoxicated conviction and two prior removals from the United States.

Texas Scorecard reported that ICE apprehended Perez-Morales in August 2025 after that seventh DWI conviction, and that an ICE Deportation Officer’s affidavit placed the key encounter at the Midlothian Police Department on August 25, 2025.

The Northern District of Texas prosecution now locks in a multi-year federal prison term, one year of supervised release, and a planned removal once the sentence ends. For readers tracking public safety and border enforcement, the case puts hard numbers on a familiar pattern: prior removals, repeated drunk driving, and another unlawful return.

Encounter, detainer, and the guilty plea

According to the ICE affidavit described in the reporting, authorities encountered Perez-Morales at the Midlothian Police Department on August 25, 2025. Officers confirmed he was a Mexican national unlawfully present in the United States and lodged an immigration detainer.

ICE took him into custody in August 2025 following the seventh DWI conviction. He later pled guilty to the federal illegal reentry charge. The exact plea date has not been publicly detailed in the available account, and no docket number or statute citation appears in that reporting.

Cases that end with a defendant in custody often draw intense public attention, much like when Mississippi police announced an arrest and promised more charges in a high-profile death investigation.

What is clear is the procedural path: local encounter, federal immigration confirmation, ICE custody, a guilty plea, and a federal sentence in the Northern District of Texas.

Seven DWIs and two prior removals

Court records referenced in the reporting show Perez-Morales was convicted of driving while intoxicated seven times between 2009 and 2025. Two of those convictions involved hit-and-run accidents. The same account states he had been removed from the United States in 2013 and again in 2020.

Those dates matter because they frame the federal charge. He did not face sentencing as a first-time immigration offender. He returned after multiple removals and built a long DWI record that stretched across more than a decade and a half.

No public results have been released in this account about victim identities or injury details from the hit-and-run DWI matters. Investigators and courts already recorded the convictions themselves, including the two hit-and-run cases, as part of the history tied to the federal sentencing.

Federal agents moving on suspects with serious alleged ties to violence remains a recurring enforcement theme, including when ICE nabbed a suspect allegedly tied to a political assassination case abroad.

Judge Starr’s order and release conditions

Judge Starr ordered the 74-month prison term and one year of supervised release after imprisonment. He recommended placement in a federal facility near Dallas-Fort Worth and participation in alcohol treatment programs.

Authorities plan to remove Perez-Morales again after he completes the federal sentence. The supervised release term and treatment recommendation sit on top of the prison time, not in place of it.

The sentence date itself is not listed in the reporting, and the specific courthouse city inside the Northern District of Texas is not named beyond the district. The operative terms are the 74 months, the year of supervision, the facility recommendation, and the planned removal.

Swift custody decisions after violent or fatal crimes also drive public focus on whether offenders stay locked up, as when Smyrna police jailed an 18-year-old without bond following a dismemberment discovery at an apartment complex.

U.S. Attorney’s message on repeat violators

U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould of the Northern District of Texas tied the outcome to enforcement and public safety. He said the sentence reflects federal authorities’ commitment to enforcing immigration law and protecting communities.

Raybould put the point in blunt terms:

"Individuals who repeatedly violate our immigration laws and endanger our communities by driving drunk, especially after multiple removals, are not welcome in the United States."

That statement frames the case as more than a single booking. It treats repeated illegal reentry plus serial intoxicated driving as a combined threat that federal prosecutors intend to punish with real prison time.

Broader Northern District charging push

In August, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas announced that prosecutors had charged 184 defendants with illegal reentry since June 1. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations and Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigations behind that broader effort.

According to that office’s description, defendants in the larger set had prior removal orders and criminal histories that included aggravated assault, robbery, and hit-and-run causing death. Perez-Morales’s file fits the repeat-removal and serious-traffic-crime pattern inside that wave, even though his own federal count centered on illegal reentry after the DWI history.

The exact calendar year attached to the “since June 1” start date is not spelled out beyond the August announcement context in the reporting. The charging total and the criminal-history categories are the figures the office put forward.

Arrest stories that pair a named suspect with a fatal attack continue to draw readers who want clear custody outcomes, including coverage of a Venezuelan national identified as the suspect in a Bay Area retiree stabbing.

What the record shows next

The federal posture is straightforward. Perez-Morales pled guilty. Judge Starr imposed 74 months and a year of supervised release. The court recommended a Dallas-Fort Worth area facility and alcohol treatment. ICE and federal authorities state they will seek removal again after the prison term.

Open items remain limited to missing paperwork details rather than the core outcome. Authorities have not publicly listed the plea hearing date, the sentencing hearing date, the case number, or the precise statutory citation in the account summarized here. Those gaps do not change the imposed term or the removal plan.

High-profile arrests after fatal shootings keep the same pressure on police and prosecutors to finish the job, similar to when Dublin police arrested an elderly couple following the shooting death of a New York Times Games executive.

For Midlothian, the Northern District of Texas, and ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, the sequence ran from a police-department encounter to a federal judgment. The defendant’s record supplied the weight: seven DWI convictions from 2009 to 2025, two hit-and-run DWIs, removals in 2013 and 2020, and a new illegal reentry plea.

When courts finally impose multi-year federal time on repeat crossers who keep driving drunk, the public gets a rare clear signal that immigration law and traffic safety enforcement can move together instead of in circles.