CONVICTED and sentenced last year by the District Court for the NMI for attempting to enter Guam illegally by boat, Hongmei Ding was arrested on Dec. 10, 2024 on Guam for violating her release conditions.
Court documents did not indicate how she ended up on Guam.
In September 2023, Ding was among the 14 defendants charged with “engaging in a conspiracy [to transport, move, or attempt to transport or move] an alien within the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that the alien came to, entered, and remained in the United States in violation of law.”
According to U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, the defendants entered the CNMI at various times and all have overstayed their legal status in the U.S.
On Nov. 9, 2023, Ding was convicted of one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(l)(A)(v)(I).
She was sentenced to time served and one-year supervised release.
On Dec. 21, 2023, a petition for warrant or summons for offender under supervision was filed in federal court. It stated that she failed to follow the instructions of the probation officer related to the conditions of supervision; changed residence without properly notifying the U.S. Probation Office; and failed to submit a monthly supervision report for November 2023.
On the same day, the District Court for the NMI issued a warrant of arrest for Ding.
On Dec. 10, 2024, she was arrested on Guam.
On Dec. 12, 2024, District Court of Guam Magistrate Judge Michael Bordallo issued a writ of removal against Ding.
He ordered U.S. Marshals to “remove Hongmei Ding forthwith to the Northern Mariana Islands and there deliver her to the United States Marshal for the District or to some other officer authorized to receive her.”
The District Court for the NMI has yet to schedule a hearing for Ding but has appointed attorney Richard Miller to represent her in court proceedings.
