U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo has announced that Wilmer Orlando Canelas-Najera, a 44-year-old Honduran citizen, has pleaded guilty to charges of illegal reentry and actions to prevent his departure from the United States. The plea was entered before U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo in Buffalo, New York. Following his guilty plea, Canelas-Najera was sentenced to time served and transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Bonanno, who managed the case, explained that Canelas-Najera lacks legal status in the United States. Originally ordered removed from the country in 1997 after failing to attend an immigration hearing, he was apprehended and deported in March 2017 but returned later that year in September and faced another removal order.
On April 1, 2025, around 8:15 p.m., U.S. Border Patrol agents found Canelas-Najera near a hotel on Millersport Highway in Amherst, NY. When approached by agents who addressed him as “Wilmer,” he fled across eight lanes of traffic on Millersport Highway, causing vehicles to brake abruptly. A pursuing Border Patrol agent lost sight of him during this incident.
Canelas-Najera was spotted again at approximately 1:30 a.m. on April 2 at the same hotel location. An agent found him on the fifth floor hallway of the hotel where he resisted arrest by pushing away an agent and locking himself inside a room. By noon, hotel staff unlocked the door for Border Patrol agents who then apprehended him.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America—a nationwide initiative aiming to combat illegal immigration by utilizing resources from the Department of Justice against cartels and transnational criminal organizations while protecting communities from violent crime perpetrators.
The investigation leading up to Canelas-Najera’s plea and sentencing was conducted by U.S. Border Patrol under Patrol Agent-in-Charge Martin B. Coombs’ leadership.
