CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Department of Justice filed nearly 200 new federal criminal cases related to immigration and border security last week, following several weeks of intense deportation raids in and around Houston and other South Texas cities.
The immigration actions involved Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HIS), and other federal agencies, which ramped up after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Of the nearly 200 newly filed cases, almost 100 involve illegal aliens charged with re-entering the country after removal. According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, most of these cases involve defendants with prior felony convictions that include narcotics offenses, violent crimes, and prior immigration offenses. More than 80 defendants face charges of illegally entering the country; 12 cases involve human smuggling, and the remainder relate to other immigration crimes.
Multiple defendants are charged in a new indictment related to assaulting law enforcement officers. The latest indictment charges a dozen illegal aliens concerning an assault on two correctional officers at the East Hidalgo Detention Center in La Villa, Texas. If convicted, the defendants face up to eight years in federal prison.
Also charged this week are two South Texas bakery owners who were indicted for harboring illegal aliens. At the time of a consensual worksite enforcement action in mid-February at Abby’s Bakery and Dulce’s Café, law enforcement officers conducting immigration-related duties allegedly identified several employees and others who were in the United States illegally or in the country with visitor visas that did not allow them the right to work. The bakery owners were alleged to have housed these illegal alien workers in an adjacent room with six mattresses on the floor, according to the United States Attorney’s office.
Several individuals have also been sentenced for other various border-related crimes against the United States, such as the leader of an organization who smuggled aliens through Corpus Christi, Texas, and was ordered to forfeit $1 million in proceeds from his illegal alien smuggling scheme that lasted for three years or more.
The smuggling case involves Marvin Reyes, who authorities assert led the human smuggling organization, which was based out of Houston. The investigation revealed he and others were coordinating the movement of illegal aliens through the Border Patrol checkpoints located near Sarita and Falfurrias as well as by airplane. Reyes also arranged private flights for illegal aliens from Weslaco to Houston. He was ordered to serve 108 months in prison.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, the immigration raids in Texas included operations in Colony Ridge, a well-known migrant colony in Liberty County. Colony Ridge is a more than 30,000-acre housing development located less than forty miles north of Houston. The subdivision has been the subject of numerous media stories linking it to a significant population of aliens in an illegal status and for the developer’s questionable land sales tactics, mainly targeting Hispanic consumers.
The area is frequently noted for criminal activity related to aliens illegally present in the United States. As reported by Breitbart Texas, three previously deported illegal aliens were arrested in a targeted traffic stop that resulted in the seizure of nearly 350 pounds of methamphetamine in mid-February. A multi-agency law enforcement task force from Liberty County developed information from the three previously deported migrants that led to the discovery of methamphetamine in a trailer located in Colony Ridge after the vehicle stop.
The United States Attorney’s Southern District of Texas remains one of the busiest in the nation. It represents 43 counties and more than nine million people, covering 44,000 square miles. Assistant U.S. Attorneys from all seven divisions, including Houston, Galveston, Victoria, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, McAllen, and Laredo, work directly with law enforcement officers at the federal, state, and local levels to prosecute federal crimes within the district.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Before his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
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