Texas prosecutors are juggling a big wave of immigration-related crime, with over 300 new cases filed statewide in just the final days of June.
Between June 27 and July 2, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas announced it had filed 208 new illegal immigration and immigration-related criminal cases. Meanwhile, the Southern District of Texas filed nearly 100 additional cases around the same week, according to federal officials.
Many of these new cases involve violent repeat offenders and serious felony charges for career criminals.
In San Antonio, Mexican national Erik Garcia-Rodriguez was arrested after reentering the U.S. illegally despite a past conviction for trafficking cocaine and heroin. In Fort Hancock, Mexican national Eduardo Lopez-Castillo, previously deported three times and convicted of assault, was arrested yet again.
Other listed cases range from drug trafficking and child sexual assault to human smuggling and felony firearms charges.
In Austin, Mexican national Ismael Nieto Balverde was charged with distributing over two kilograms of heroin. In Ector County, another Mexican national previously deported was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a child.
In Houston, federal authorities charged 16 foreign nationals with drug trafficking and firearms violations as part of a takedown targeting illegal aliens from Venezuela linked to the violent Anti-Tren criminal gang.
The Southern District also announced multiple charges for illegal reentry after removal, also including people with prior felonies for narcotics, violent crime, and human smuggling. One case involved Cesar Alejandro Tovar-Guillen, a convicted cocaine trafficker found unlawfully in the U.S. only months after last being deported.
The recent crackdown on illegal aliens is just another chapter in the book of “Operation Take Back America,” an initiative by the DOJ to crack down on illegal immigration and dismantle transnational criminal organizations, as previously covered by The Dallas Express.
According to Southern District U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei, the initiative is now “going on the offensive” to fight the influx of illegal aliens and to prevent violent gangs from spreading more roots across the country.
“Operation Take Back America means going on the offensive against transnational criminal organizations to ensure that they cannot take root in our community and endanger public safety. SDTX is going to be unapologetic in carrying out that mission,” Ganjei said.