Brazilian national gets 7 months for illegal re-entry

CHARLOTTE AMALIEJoice Iara Costa De Souza, a 28-year-old woman from Brazil, was sentenced on Thursday, May 29, 2025 to seven months imprisonment for illegally reentering the country after she had been deported, Acting United States Attorney Adam F. Sleeper said today.

According to court records, De Souza was previously deported from the United States on November 22, 2019, after pleading guilty to illegally entering the United States.

On March 12, 2020, De Souza was arrested at the Urman Victor Fredericks Marine Terminal in Red Hook, St. Thomas.

De Souza admitted that she did not have proper documentation to enter or remain in the United States.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Robert A. Molloy handed down the sentence to de Souza.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Robert A. MolloyThis case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Marine Interdiction Agents (CBP-MIA).

Assistant United States Attorney Denise George prosecuted the case.

John F. McCarthy is a veteran journalist in the Caribbean, writing from the "Decision Space" where survival meets the surreal. His reporting steel was tempered by a lineage of legendary editors and broadcasters, including Ed Wynn Brant (The Bomb), Owen Eschenroder (Ann Arbor News), Lynelle Emanuel (BVI Beacon), and Charles Thanas (WSVI-TV). Alongside longtime colleague Kenneth C. "Casey" Clark, McCarthy has navigated the front lines of the territory’s history—from the 1997 volcanic "snow" to every major hurricane since Hugo. Known for leaning out of doorless helicopters to capture the "money shot," McCarthy now edits the V.I. Free Press, providing the essential link between the island's colonial past and its SpaceX future.