Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of California filed 102 border-related cases this week. The charges include bringing in aliens for financial gain, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importing controlled substances.
The Southern District of California is one of the busiest federal districts in the country, largely due to a high number of border-related crimes. This district covers San Diego and Imperial counties and shares a 140-mile border with Mexico. It includes the San Ysidro Port of Entry, known as the world’s busiest land border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana.
Besides responding to border crimes, prosecutors in this district also handle proactive cases involving terrorism, organized crime, drugs, white-collar fraud, violent crime, cybercrime, human trafficking, and national security.
A few examples of recent arrests were provided by authorities:
On August 22, Juan Nunez-Bravo was arrested at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and charged with Attempted Entry after Deportation. Authorities say he claimed to be a U.S. citizen who had lost his documents but was found through fingerprints to be a Mexican citizen previously deported in 1996 and 2012.
On August 27, Jose Alfred Vasquez-Garcia was arrested on similar charges after being intercepted on a boat with other undocumented immigrants by Customs and Border Protection agents. He had previously been deported on May 6 from the same port.
That same day, Luzbelen Gonzalez was arrested for Bringing in Aliens for Financial Gain and Aggravated Identity Theft. According to officials, she attempted to smuggle a child into the United States using a false birth certificate at the San Ysidro pedestrian lanes. Officers discovered that the child was not her two-year-old daughter as claimed but rather a nine-year-old girl from Oaxaca.
Also on August 27 at Otay Mesa Port of Entry, Jonathan Gomez Rangel was arrested for Importation of a Controlled Substance after officers found 51 packages weighing 120 pounds of cocaine hidden in his vehicle’s roof.
In addition to these arrests, several individuals with prior criminal records were sentenced for illegally re-entering the United States after previous deportations:
On August 25, Mirhzan Javier Roa-Gomez received a sentence of 66 days in custody following an earlier conviction for misdemeanor illegal entry.
On August 29, Hector Armando Ibarra Mendoza was sentenced to twelve months in custody; he has prior convictions for felony stalking and injury to a spouse or cohabitant.
The immigration cases were referred or supported by various federal law enforcement agencies including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE ERO), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Border Patrol (USBP), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF), along with state and local partners.
“Indictments and criminal complaints are merely allegations and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”
