Trump's Border Prosecutors Charge 855 with Immigration Law Violations Last Week

President Donald Trump’s border-state prosecutors charged more than 855 illegal aliens and U.S. citizens with violations of immigration laws last week. The federal criminal prosecutions illustrate new consequences for human smuggling, illegally crossing the border, or re-entering after removal.

During the past week, prosecutors for the U.S. Attorneys for five border-state districts charged more than 750 people with crimes related to immigration law. At least 460 of those were charged in Texas-based districts. The prosecutions are part of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Operation Take Back America.

The most significant number of filed cases came in the Southern District of Texas, where prosecutors filed 245 cases. The majority of these cases involved illegal aliens with criminal histories.

The cases include charges against previously deported child sex offenders, an Arkansas man smuggling aliens in the wheel well and trunk of a work truck, A Mexican national who fled to avoid arrest after illegally crossing the border, and a Honduran migrant who pretended to be an unaccompanied minor.

Prosecutors said, “A total 118 face charges of illegally entering the country, 10 cases involve various instances of human smuggling, and the remainder relate to firearms and assault of federal officers.

Next door, in the Western District of Texas, prosecutors filed 215 new immigration cases in four days. The charges followed arrests in Austin, Midland-Odessa, and other regions of the western border between Texas and Mexico.

These cases involved criminal aliens convicted of child sex crimes, intoxication manslaughter, terroristic threats, domestic violence, identity theft, human smuggling, and one man who had been deported eight times.

In the District of New Mexico, prosecutors filed 65 criminal cases against migrants and human smugglers. These include criminal aliens with convictions or charges for drug trafficking, burglary, illegal re-entry after removal, kidnapping, and assault on a federal officer.

The New Mexico U.S. Attorney stated:

• 38 individuals were charged this week with Illegal Reentry After Deportation (8 U.S.C. 1326)
• 5 individuals were charged this week with Alien Smuggling (8 U.S.C. 1324)
• 22 individuals were charged this week with Illegal Entry (8 U.S.C. 1325)

The U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona reports more than 230 people were charged with “immigration-related criminal conduct.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office reported:

Specifically, the United States filed 92 cases in which aliens illegally re-entered the United States, and the United States also charged 124 aliens for illegally entering the United States.  In its ongoing effort to deter unlawful immigration, the United States also filed 11 cases against 15 individuals responsible for smuggling illegal aliens into and within the District of Arizona. Protecting law enforcement officers is a key part of border vigilance, and federal prosecutors also charged one defendant for assaulting a Border Patrol agent.

In the Southern District of California, prosecutors brought charges in more than 100 border-related criminal cases.

Prosecutors reported, “A representative sample of border-related arrests this week includes:”

• On March 8, 2025, Gabriel Yeraldi Gaona, a United States citizen, was arrested and charged with alien smuggling after he was caught attempting to smuggle two citizens of Mexico into the United States. Following his arrest, Gaona admitted that he crossed into the United States from Mexico by climbing over a ladder that was placed on the first border fence.  The two Mexican citizens he was arrested with admitted that they are citizens of Mexico without lawful documents allowing them to enter the United States.
• On March 9, 2025, Antonio Lerma Cervantes, a Mexican citizen, was arrested on drug importation charges when he attempted to cross into the U.S. from Mexico at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry with more than 60 pounds of cocaine hidden in the rear seat and quarter panels of his vehicle.
• On March 12, 2025, Edy Osorio-Berrelleza, a citizen of Mexico, was arrested after he was caught attempting to transport another citizen of Mexico within the United States. After running away from a Border Patrol Agent, Osorio allegedly threw rocks at both a Customs and Border Protection helicopter and also towards Border Patrol agents.  Following his arrest, Osorio admitted that he was going to be paid for the smuggling activity, and that he threw rocks at the helicopter and the agents once they were close to him.  He is currently charged with alien smuggling and assault on a federal officer.

The cases last week followed a whole-of-government approach to enforcing America’s immigration laws put in place by President Donald Trump on his first day in office. Multi-agency task forces included law enforcement officers and agents from the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, ATF, U.S. Border Patrol, ICE, and the U.S. Marshals Service.