Texas Border Business
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Texas
SAN ANTONIO – Acting United States Attorney Margaret Leachman for the Western District of Texas announced today, that federal prosecutors in the district filed 210 immigration and immigration-related criminal cases from March 14 through March 20.
Among the new cases, Mexican national Carlos Alberto Santoyo Holguin and Guatemalan national Bielman Alexander PU-Ruiz were arrested on March 16 and March 18, respectively, during Greyhound bus inspections at the Sierra Blanca Border Patrol checkpoint. Both defendants allegedly did not have any immigration documents that would allow them to be or remain in the United States legally. Records checks revealed prior removal orders by immigration judges. Criminal complaints allege that agents found fraudulent Social Security cards and fraudulent Lawful Permanent Resident Alien cards in the belongings of both Holguin and PU-Ruiz. The defendants are alleged to have purchased the fraudulent documents in California.
A convicted felon who is a citizen and national of Guatemala was arrested by Marfa Border Patrol Agents. A criminal complaint alleges that Marvin Miguel US-Mendoza was not in possession of immigration documents allowing him to legally be or remain in the U.S. and he had been previously removed from the U.S. four times—the first being Feb. 19, 2016 through Brownsville/Gateway, and the most recent deportation through Laredo on Dec. 9, 2024.
Manuel Andres-Miguel was also arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents and charged with transporting illegal aliens after he was allegedly guiding a group of illegal aliens through the desert to a pick-up location in Marfa. Records revealed that Andres-Miguel had been apprehended three times before for illegal entry and was last charged with illegal reentry after removal in March 2023. For that offense, he was sentenced to 90 days in federal prison.
In Del Rio, Ashley Nicole Dronenberg and Zachery Lee Justus were arrested for allegedly trafficking two illegal aliens further into the U.S. A criminal complaint alleges that Dronenberg was the driver of a vehicle, and was discovered at a Border Patrol checkpoint to have concealed a mother and child in the rear cargo area of the vehicle.
Jose Manuel Medellin-Guerrero was arrested in San Antonio March 20 and charged with one count of illegal re-entry. A Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office deputy dispatched Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) during a traffic stop after Medellin-Guerrero allegedly revealed he was a Mexican national with no legal status to enter, pass through, or remain in the country. Medellin-Guerrero has been previously convicted three times for illegal re-entry into the U.S.
Mexican national Reymundo Criado-Cruz was transferred to federal custody in Austin, where he had been convicted in state court for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and was serving a 700-day sentence. Criado-Cruz had been previously removed from the U.S. to Mexico twice, most recently in December 2007, and has an extensive record of criminal convictions, including burglary of a vehicle, theft of property, possession of a controlled substance, and evading arrest.
Also in Austin, Ezequiel Borja-Jaimes was arrested March 19 when he was encountered by the ICE Austin Fugitive Operations team. Borja-Jaimes had been previously removed from the U.S. in January 2021. He has been convicted of driving while intoxicated on three separate occasions between 2013 and 2021.
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.
