378 Immigration Cases Filed in the Western District of Texas This Week

SAN ANTONIO – Acting United States Attorney Margaret Leachman for the Western District of Texas announced today, that federal prosecutors in the district filed 378 new immigration and immigration-related criminal cases from April 11 through April 17.

Among the new cases, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement Removal Operations (ICE ERO) agents in San Antonio received notification that Mexican national Netsai Moreno-Suarez was arrested for a traffic violation on April 11. Moreno-Suarez was transferred into ICE ERO custody, charged with illegal re-entry. She was previously removed from the United States in August 2023 after being convicted for conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and being sentenced to five years of probation. If convicted, Moreno-Suarez faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

On April 12, Janet Amanda Gonzales, of San Antonio, was arrested in Kinney County for allegedly transporting five illegal aliens further into the United States. A criminal complaint alleges that U.S. Border Patrol agents observed several individuals laying on top of each other on the backseat of Gonzales’s vehicle as she arrived at an immigration checkpoint near Brackettville. Gonzales allegedly admitted that she was conspiring with other subjects to transport the illegal aliens for monetary gain. A convicted felon, Gonzales was sentenced in April 2021 to two years of probation for exploitation of child/elderly/disabled.

The following day, April 13, a USBP agent observed multiple people running away from the brush and enter a pickup truck on the side of Highway 277 near Texas Loop 79. The agent performed an immigration inspection on the individuals, allegedly discovering four illegal aliens and U.S. Citizen Roberto Hernandez. A criminal complaint alleges that Hernandez was contacted by a co-conspirator and asked to pick up a group of illegal aliens to transport them to a residence in Del Rio.

USBP agents arrested Mexican national Arturo Mendoza-Yerbafria near Sanderson on April 15 for illegal re-entry. Mendoza-Yerbafria has been thrice deported, most recently on May 15, 2024 through Laredo Columbia Bridge. He was convicted in March 2018 and sentenced to 366 days in prison for one count of bringing in and harboring aliens.

Honduran national Efrain Antonio Corroto-Herrera was arrested near Eagle Pass after records indicated he had been previously deported twice, the most recent removal being to Honduras on March 12 through Laredo. Corroto-Herrera was convicted in Austin on Feb. 26 for assault causing bodily injury, for which he received a sentence of 180 days confinement.

Mexican national Zacarias Bautista-Emiliano was arrested by USBP agents for being an alien illegally present in the U.S, having been previously deported as recently as October 2024 through San Ysidro, California. The October removal was Bautista-Emiliano’s fifth deportation and his criminal history includes a felony conviction in 2013 for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14. His criminal record also includes two additional felony convictions: illegal re-entry in New Mexico in 2014 and illegal re-entry in Arizona in 2022. Bautista-Emiliano received sentences of 46 months in prison and 40 months in prison, respectively, for those convictions.

In Austin, Honduran national Elvin Alexis Canelas-Morillo was placed into federal custody April 17. He pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily injury in a 2023 Travis County case and was sentenced to 179 days confinement. Canelas-Morillo has four prior removals, most recently in April 2022, and a lengthy criminal history that includes multiple immigration convictions, burglary of a building, and evading arrest. He now faces a charge of illegal re-entry.

Mexican national Heber Vivero-Martinez was also transferred to federal custody in Austin on April 17. Along with three prior convictions for illegal entry, Vivero-Martinez was convicted in 2019 for assault causing bodily injury. At the time of his transfer, he was serving 20 days in the Travis County Jail for a DWI charge. Vivero-Martinez’s immigration record includes two removals in 2013 and four voluntary returns between 2007 and 2009.

In El Paso, Mexican national Adolfo Martinez-Padron was arrested and charged with illegal re-entry. He has been previously removed six times, most recently March 27 through Del Rio. Martinez-Padron’s extensive criminal history includes two felony convictions for possession of a controlled substance, two DWIs, and assault causing bodily injury to a family member.

Mexican national Santa Cruz Garcia-Morales was arrested in El Paso as well, having been previously removed from the U.S. four times and granted two voluntary removals. In 2023, Garcia-Morales was convicted in Salt Lake, Utah and sentenced to 180 days in jail for domestic violence in the presence of a child. In May 2024, he was sentenced to 18 months of probation in West Jordan, Utah for aggravated assault.

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 the Republic of Mexico.

These cases are part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).

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.

###