(The Center Square) – As illegal border crossings have dropped off significantly under the Trump administration, federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona are filing immigration and border crime charges at a record pace.
In one week, they filed charges against 204 illegal foreign nationals. This includes 83 for illegal reentry, 107 for illegally entering the U.S., and 14 responsible for “smuggling illegal aliens into and within the District of Arizona,” the office announced.
One recent arrest depicts typical ones made by Border Patrol agents in Arizona and elsewhere, The Center Square has reported on over the years. On April 1, Border Patrol agents arrested illegal foreign national Gabriel Santiago-Ramirez near Kingman, Arizona, after engaging in pursuit and catching him on foot in the desert. After being pursued in his vehicle by Border Patrol agents, he bailed out and ran, seeking to evade capture. They found three illegal foreign nationals inside his vehicle allegedly being transported further into the interior. Border Patrol agents caught him and arrested all four illegally in the country.
A recent sentencing also describes typical border crime convictions. On April 2, a federal judge sentenced Mexican national Ivan Mauricio Hernandez-Mosqueda to 46 months in prison for “Conspiracy to Encourage and Induce an Alien to Unlawfully Enter the United States.” He was found guilty of coordinating the smuggling of more than 100 illegal foreign nationals into Arizona, many of whom he coached on how to claim asylum under false pretenses, investigators said.
The previous week, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona brought immigration and border crime charges against 260 illegal foreign nationals, including against 96 for illegal reentry and 155 for illegally entering the U.S.
It also filed cases against nine individuals “responsible for smuggling illegal aliens into and within the District of Arizona,” it announced.
In one notable case it highlights, Columbian national Greiby Melissa Barcelo-Velasquez was sentenced to 30 months in prison for “Conspiracy to Encourage and Induce an Alien to Unlawfully Enter the United States.” She was found guilty of coordinating the smuggling of more than 100 Columbia nationals to the U.S. using her travel company, Baul Travel SAS, dating back to June 2023.
Federal agents involved in the investigations for the nearly 500 cases include U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, ICE- Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, the DEA, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and ATF.
CBP and Border Patrol agents staffing Arizona’s 378 miles of shared border with Mexico in the CBP sectors of Tucson and Yuma were hard hit by the border crisis that erupted after former President Joe Biden dismantled existing border security policies and implemented new ones. His administration created parole programs and a phone app to facilitate the unlawful entry of millions of inadmissible foreign nationals into the U.S., which were terminated by the Trump administration.
By fiscal 2022, both sectors reported a record high of more than 816,000 apprehensions and gotaways, those who evaded capture, The Center Square exclusively reported. Illegal border crossers reportedly came from 150 countries in one fiscal year, totaling more than the population of every single city in Arizona except Phoenix, The Center Square reported.
By fiscal 2023, more than 775,000 foreign nationals illegally entered Arizona, including apprehensions reported by CBP and gotaways reported by Border Patrol agents exclusively reported by The Center Square.
In the first three months of fiscal 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona brought criminal charges against nearly 1,456 foreign nationals for illegal entry and reentry and filed 260 human smuggling cases, The Center Square reported.
As the border crisis worsened, instead of shutting down the border, the Biden administration increased flights of illegal foreign nationals into the U.S. and expanded entry through a phone app. Illegal crossings dropped slightly to nearly 565,000 in Arizona in fiscal 2024, excluding gotaways, The Center Square reported.
As local municipalities and cities nationwide became inundated by illegal border crossers, including in Arizona, they reported increased crime and combined multiple billions of dollars-worth of strain to social services, prompting Democratic leaders to call on the administration for financial assistance.
After a record more than 1 million Venezuelans illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, members of the violent Venezuelan transnational criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, were arrested in Arizona and in at least 22 states, The Center Square exclusively reported.
As the Trump administration aggressively prosecutes illegal border crossers, it’s continuing its deportation efforts, including of TdA members designated as foreign terrorists.
