The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas reported an influx of 295 new immigration-related cases within the last week alone. The crackdown showcases the growing federal push to clamp down on illegal aliens and crime along the southern border.
From April 4 to April 10, acting U.S. Attorney Margaret Leachman announced that her office, spanning 68 counties and including major cities such as San Antonio, Austin, and El Paso, filed nearly 300 charges connected to the illegal entry, re-entry, smuggling, and harboring of illegal aliens.
Many cases stem from multi-agency investigative operations under the Department of Justice’s Operation Take Back America initiative, which aims to dismantle foreign criminal organizations, and secure the border.
Some of the more notable recent cases, out of the 295 reported, include:
- Jorge Alberto Garcia-Drue, a Mexican national with prior convictions for harboring illegal aliens, was finally identified and located at the Frio County Jail after allegedly refusing to provide accurate identification information to police.
- In El Paso, a dramatic scene unfolded when Border Patrol agents uncovered a suspected stash house where 17 people were found living in hazardous conditions. Two suspects, Victor Gonzalez-Serrano and Alberto Barrera-Soria, were caught attempting to flee via the rooftop. According to authorities, both men admitted they had both been paid to hide people within that hidden house. A third man, Diego Barrera-Granados who was also tied to the case, was allegedly smuggled into America to help the men in transporting the group.
- Elsewhere in El Paso, Julio Pop-Tiul, a Guatemalan national with ties to the 18th Street Gang and prior felony convictions in California, was charged with illegal re-entry after being previously deported.
- In Del Rio, authorities arrested several people with extensive criminal records, including Jose Eufracio-Plata, who had been deported multiple times and convicted on felony drug charges, and Isaias Gomez-Cruz, who has been previously deported five times with multiple past DWI convictions.
The DOJ attributes the spike in cases to the border enforcement efforts under Operation Take Back America, which uses the collective resources of Homeland Security, the FBI, DEA, and local police departments in the south. The initiative also runs other ongoing federal investigations, including a major drug trafficking case in Waco, where 20 people were indicted this weekfor allegedly participating in a drug-trafficking crime ring that was moving large amounts of methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine.