Federal prosecutors filed 590 new immigration cases in Texas in one week

Federal prosecutors filed 590 new immigration and border-security cases across Texas in a single week, according to back-to-back announcements from the state’s two border districts covering May 15 through May 21. The Southern District of Texas filed 271 cases, and the Western District of Texas filed 319. That is an average of about 84 new cases for every day of the week.

Southern District

The Southern District’s 271 cases covered 273 people, a count announced by Acting U.S. Attorney John G.E. Marck. Of those, 249 were charged with being in the country unlawfully, 67 for illegal entry and 182 for illegal reentry. Another 19 cases involved alleged human smuggling, and the rest covered other immigration offenses. Illegal reentry, charged under 8 U.S.C. § 1326, was the largest single category by a wide margin. The 182 reentry cases made up two-thirds of the district’s filings for the week. Most of the people charged, the office said, had prior convictions tied to narcotics, earlier immigration offenses, or violent crimes. The district also won two reentry trials in the same week. A Houston jury convicted Eduardo Aguilera-Gallardo in under 30 minutes after he testified that he had been kidnapped and forced back across the border, an account the jury rejected. In Corpus Christi, a jury took less than 10 minutes to convict Jose Leandro Juarez-Rivas, who was found on a commercial bus in February. Separately, a Houston court sentenced Jose Angel Martinez Menjivar of El Salvador to 40 months for reentry, following earlier convictions for reentry and indecent assault.

Western District

The Western District filed more cases than its southern neighbor, 319 in all, announced by U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons. The district did not break that number down by charge type, so the split among entry, reentry, and smuggling is not public for these filings. It did report where the cases were filed. The Del Rio division handled 173, the most of any division, and El Paso handled 110. The remaining 36 were spread across the district’s other divisions, which include San Antonio and Austin. The 319 total was up from the 281 cases the district filed the previous week, May 8 through May 14, an increase of 38 over seven days. Both districts tie the filings to Operation Take Back America, the Justice Department initiative running immigration and cartel prosecutions along the southwest border. Indictments and complaints are allegations, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted.