U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico Weekly Immigration and Border Crimes Report

ALBUQUERQUE - Today, the United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico announced its immigration enforcement statistics for this week. These cases are prosecuted in partnership with the El Paso Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, along with Homeland Security Investigations El Paso, and assistance from other federal, state, and county agencies.

In the one-week period ending February 20, 2026, the United States Attorney's Office brought the following criminal charges in New Mexico:

• 67 individuals were charged this week with Illegal Reentry After Deportation (8 U.S.C. 1326)
• 9 individuals were charged this week with Alien Smuggling (8 U.S.C. 1324)
• 59 individuals were charged this week with Illegal Entry (8 U.S.C. 1325)
• 48 individuals were charged this week with Illegal Entry (8 U.S.C. 1325), violation of a military security regulation (50 U.S.C. 797) and Entering Military, Naval, or Coast Guard Property (18 U.S.C. 1382), arising from the newly established National Defense Area in New Mexico.

Many of the defendants charged pursuant to 8 U.S.C. 1326 had prior criminal convictions for drug trafficking, healthcare fraud, money laundering, human smuggling, burglary, and immigration offenses.

In one significant case, on February 13, 2026, Border Patrol agents at the Las Cruces checkpoint on I-25 stopped a tractor trailer driven by Adriana Alejandra Coss, who appeared nervous and claimed she was hauling an empty, locked trailer without a key. A canine alerted to the trailer during secondary inspection, and agents cut the lock, discovering nineteen undocumented individuals trapped inside with no way to exit. Agents also found a cooler bag in the cab containing cell phones belonging to those inside and later recovered a key in Coss's former detention cell that opened the trailer lock. Witnesses stated they had paid smugglers, were held in stash houses, and were loaded into the trailer by multiple transporters before traveling nonstop to the checkpoint in cold conditions. The truck's owner said Coss did not have permission to operate the vehicle and that there was no legitimate reason for the trip.

This case is 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.

These statistics represent prosecutions by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico only. The numbers do not include individuals apprehended by immigration enforcement officials and subjected solely to administrative process.

Under current leadership, public safety and a secure border are the top priorities for the District of New Mexico. Enhanced enforcement both at the border and in the interior of the district have yielded aliens engaged in unlawful activity or with serious criminal history, including human trafficking, sexual assault and violence against children.

The District of New Mexico consists of 33 counties and shares 180 miles of international border with Mexico. Assistant U.S. Attorneys from Albuquerque and Las Cruces work directly with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners to prosecute immigration-related and other federal offenses.