EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas announced Friday, July 11 that it has filed 222 new immigration and immigration-related criminal cases for the week of July 3-10.
Here are some that are have ties to El Paso or the El Paso region:
Two Guatemalan nationals were arrested in El Paso and charged with illegal re-entry after they had just been removed from the U.S. in May, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Diego Garcia-Godinez was allegedly located just over 3 miles east of the Bridge of the Americas Port of Entry and has been deported three times, most recently to Guatemala on May 20, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Jose Luis Cabrera-Lopez was allegedly found approximately .01 miles east of the Bridge of the Americas and has also been removed three times, the last being to Guatemala on May 14., the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Samuel Meza-Escobedo, a Mexican national with nine prior removals, was also arrested in El Paso and charged with illegal re-entry, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Meza-Escobedo was allegedly found less than a mile west of the Paso Del Norte Port of Entry and has three prior illegal re-entry convictions. He was last removed from the U.S. to Mexico on Aug. 13, 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Mexican national Daniel Sauceda-Borrego was arrested by Customs and Border Protection in El Paso after he allegedly presented identification documents under an assumed or fictitious name, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
A criminal complaint alleges that Sauceda-Borrego presented a Washington state ID card bearing his photograph, name, and date of birth, along with a Social Security card of another individual with the initials J.F.R. He was referred to a secondary inspection, where his fingerprints were scanned and revealed that he had been previously removed from the U.S. to Mexico in 2011. The criminal complaint alleges that Sauceda-Borrego admitted that he was given a Texas birth certificate from an individual in Seattle and had been using a different identity for approximately five or six years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Tomas Velazquez-Jijon, a Mexican national, was arrested on July 7, after U.S. Border Patrol agents located him during a Greyhound bus inspection at the Sierra Blanca Border Patrol Checkpoint and allegedly discovered he was in possession of a fraudulent lawful permanent resident card with his demographics printed on the card. A record check for the LPR card number resulted in a different name, date of birth, and citizenship.
Agents also allegedly found that Velazquez-Jijon possessed a fraudulent Social Security card. He was recently removed from the U.S. to Mexico for the first time on May 22, and is charged with one count of fraud and misuse of visas, permits and related documents, and false personation.
These cases were referred or supported by federal law-enforcement partners, including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE ERO), U.S. Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), with additional assistance from state and local law-enforcement partners.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas comprises 68 counties located in the central and western areas of Texas, encompasses nearly 93,000 square miles and an estimated population of 7.6 million people. The district includes three of the five largest cities in Texas —San Antonio, Austin and El Paso — and shares 660 miles of common border with Mexico.
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