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

Press Release

SAN ANTONIO - Acting United States Attorney Margaret Leachman for the Western District of Texas announced today that federal prosecutors in the district filed 344 new immigration and immigration-related criminal cases from April 18 through April 24.

Among the new cases, Henry Cruz-Lemas, an illegal alien and a Honduran national previously convicted of aggravated kidnapping in September 2011 and sentenced to five years in prison. Cruz-Lemas was arrested on April 18 during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE ERO) investigation in San Antonio. He is charged with one count of illegal reentry of an alien.

Jose Angel Escarcega-Briones, an illegal alien from Mexico, was found approximately 4 miles west of the Tornillo Port of Entry. Border Patrol Agents determined that he did not have immigration documents allowing him to be in the United States legally and that he has previously been removed from the United States 5 times. He has 3 prior convictions for illegal reentry as well as a federal drug trafficking conviction.

Jose Alfonso Deras-Valle, a citizen of El Salvador, was found near mile marker 87 of Interstate 10 in Fort Hancock, Texas. U.S. Border Patrol determined that Deras-Valle had recently been deported to El Salvador on February 21, 2025. His criminal record includes a murder conviction in Florida for which he received fifteen years in prison.

U.S. Border Patrol Agents performing line watch operations in an area near Sierra Blanca, Texas encountered three people attempting to conceal themselves in a culvert. After questioning and investigation, the agents determined the group was in the United States illegally. Sergio Aguirre-Isidro was determined to be a foot guide for the group and that he was to collect 10,000 Mexican Pesos if the group arrived in the U.S. successfully.

Junior Enrique Garcia-Escobar, a Honduran national with a prior conviction out of the State of New York for Burglary using/threatening use of a dangerous instrument, was arrested on illegal reentry charges near Eagle Pass, Texas. He had been sentenced to five years in prison on the burglary charge and was deported in 2019.

Raul Rodriguez-Morales was arrested by Border Patrol Agents in Del Rio, Texas on April 18, 2025, for illegal reentry after having been deported in January 2025. Rodriguez-Morales has previous drug convictions in California as well as a conviction for felon in possession of a firearm and two previous convictions for illegal reentry of an alien in 2011 and 2019.

In Carrizo Springs, Texas, Devarick Dewayne Benson was arrested for conspiring to transport two illegal aliens further into the United States. Benson was driving a vehicle with fictitious plates and was pulled over for driving 10 miles over the speed limit. He had two illegal aliens in the trunk of his car.

A Honduran citizen, Angel Almendarez-Ulloa, was arrested on April 19, 2025, by Border Patrol Agents near Eagle Pass, Texas. Almendarez has been deported from the United States 10 times, with his last deportation to Honduras being on April 21, 2023.

These cases were referred or supported by our 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.

Updated April 28, 2025