Western District of Texas U.S. Attorney’s Office Files Over 230 New Immigration Cases This Week

SAN ANTONIO – United States Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas announced today that federal prosecutors in the district filed 233 new immigration and immigration-related criminal cases from Nov. 14 to Nov. 20. Charges were brought against individuals with multiple prior removals, DWI convictions, kidnapping convictions, and at least two with prior convictions for sex crimes, including child sex crimes.

Salvadoran national Elmer Alexander Ramirez Cerna was charged with illegal re-entry in Austin. Ramirez Cerna was found in the Williamson County Jail on Nov. 4. He was convicted of sexual assault of a child in 2017 and removed from the U.S. to El Salvador in April 2019.

In Del Rio, USBP agents arrested Honduran national Noel Jose Funez-Antunez. Funez-Antunez was previously deported twice, most recently in June 2024 after he was convicted of sexual assault in Houston and sentenced to two years of confinement. Funez-Antunez was also convicted in 2010 for kidnapping.

Honduran nationals Marcos Joel Contreras-Max and Edwin Javier Chinchilla-Lopez were arrested during a multi-agency operation conducted in San Antonio on Nov. 16. Databases revealed that both individuals were in the United States illegally and had previously been removed from the U.S. to Honduras. The two defendants are each charged with one count of illegal re-entry. If convicted, they face up to two years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

In El Paso, Mexican national Miriam Lizeth Gutierrez-Montanez was arrested and charged with human smuggling after she allegedly attempted to enter the Paso Del Norte Port of Entry with two minors in her vehicle. A criminal complaint alleges that the Customs and Border Protection officer received a system-generated alert that Gutierrez-Montanez was a possible child smuggler. Further inspection allegedly revealed that the minors were found to be Mexican citizens and not in possession of any legal documents to enter or be present in the U.S.

A U.S. citizen was also arrested and charged with human smuggling in El Paso. U.S. Border Patrol agents allegedly tracked Luis Ramon Carmona to the Cielo Vista Mall after he had picked up seven illegal aliens near the U.S./Mexico border. All eight individuals were placed under arrest and transported to the Clint Border Patrol Station for further processing. A criminal complaint alleges that Carmona was being paid $500 per illegal alien and that he had participated in the same smuggling scheme once before.

Mexican national Agustin Cano-Quintero was charged with illegal re-entry after he was found in the Travis County Jail. Cano-Quintero has been convicted three times for driving while intoxicated and has also been previously convicted for improper entry by an alien as well as illegal re-entry.

On Tuesday, USBP agents arrested Mexican national Amado Tovar-Tovar, who has three DWI convictions and, in August 2024, was removed from the U.S. to Mexico for the fourth time.

Pablo Orozco-Vasquez, also a Mexican national, was arrested near Webb after being previously deported for the fifth time in April. Orozco-Vasquez has been convicted of two DWI charges, along with reckless driving, improper entry and illegal re-entry.

These cases were referred or supported by federal law enforcement partners, including ICE, U.S. Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the 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.

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