As U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement officers continue to apprehend illegal border crossers targeted for removal, including public safety threats from China and Khazakhstan, ICE Seattle agents also worked to shut down a Mexican human smuggling operation from Canada.
Under the Biden and Trudeau administrations, a record number of illegal border crossers and terrorist arrests soared at the US-Canada border, The Center Square first reported. Due to increased security threats there, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the northern border, The Center Square reported.
Mexican cartels and human smuggling operatives have long viewed Canada as a viable entry to the U.S. Unlike the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border, there are no border walls and significantly less technological equipment and agents to patrol the U.S.-Canada border, the longest international border in the world, The Center Square reported.
With far fewer agents in the field, less technological surveillance and increased national security threats posed by Canadian policies, U.S. officials have warned about a lack of operational control at the U.S.-Canada border, The Center Square first reported.
Examples from multi-agency investigations in the Pacific Northwest highlight this threat.
On Feb. 10, a “criminal alien” living in Independence, Oregon, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in “a northern border human smuggling conspiracy” operating out of Canada.
Mexican national Jesus Ortiz-Plata, 46, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Seattle after pleading guilty last November “to conspiracy to transport certain aliens for profit.” He was arrested in May 2024 in Everett, Washington, “with aliens who had been smuggled into the United States from Canada,” according to the federal complaint.
A multi-agency investigation was conducted by ICE, Homeland Security Investigations Seattle and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
“This defendant played a key role in a dangerous and exploitative human smuggling operation that risked the lives of vulnerable individuals for financial gain. By using freight cars to smuggle people across the northern border, he demonstrated a callous disregard for human safety,” ICE HSI Seattle acting Special Agent in Charge Matthew Murphy said.
“This defendant was a cog in a conspiracy that transported people into the U.S. from across the northern border in an extremely dangerous smuggling scheme loading people into freight cars on trains traveling from Canada into the U.S.,” former U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman said, adding that transnational smuggling groups “charge thousands of dollars and risk the lives of those trying to reach the U.S.”
Border Patrol agents began investigating the Canadian smuggling operation in late 2022, after arresting non-citizens who all had the same phone number, linked to Ortiz-Plata. After obtaining court permission to track Ortiz-Plata’s location, ICE agents spent months surveilling and monitoring his activities, which led them to interdict a human smuggling operation in Everett, Washington. Two of the three illegal border crossers in his vehicle had crossed the US-Canada border in a freight train car; one said he walked across.
Prosecutors noted that, “Ortiz-Plata admits that he knew the noncitizens he picked up were using freight trains to get into the United States; but nevertheless, he proceeded to participate. Even if he, himself, was not the one directing the noncitizens to jump on, Ortiz-Plata continued to facilitate, and thereby promote, this extremely dangerous smuggling route, multiple times, over the course of at least a year.”
After serving his prison term, Ortiz-Plata is expected to be removed from the U.S.
As part of its ongoing enforcement efforts, ICE Seattle agents also arrested multiple men illegally living in the U.S. who pose a public safety threat. Three recent arrests in Seattle include a Chinese national with convictions for drug manufacturing; a Salvadoran national previously arrested for commercial sex abuse of a minor; and a Kazakhstan national illegally in the U.S. “considered to be a threat to public safety.”
ICE Seattle agents also arrested a Salvadoran national wanted in his home country for a variety of charges including homicide. He was identified as a gotaway – one who “entered the United States on an unknown date or location without inspection by an immigration official.” A record more than two million gotaways were reported illegally entering the U.S. during the Biden administration, The Center Square exclusively reported.
The Salvadoran had two arrest warrants issued by his home country; one in September 2020 for aggravated homicide; another in June 2021 for aggravated homicide, proposition, and conspiracy in the crime of aggravated homicide.
ICE Seattle agents also continue to arrest noncitizens with a history of repeated illegal entry into the U.S. The latest are men from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
Guatemalan men were arrested in Langley and Ferndale, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, with criminal histories including convictions for disorderly conduct and assault and previously being removed to Guatemala. Honduran and Mexican men were arrested in Sheridan, Oregon, and Ferndale, Washington, for illegal reentry after having been previously removed from the U.S.
Everyone arrested remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.
