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

Albuquerque –

The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico released its immigration enforcement statistics for the week. These cases are prosecuted in collaboration with the El Paso Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations El Paso, and with the support of other federal, state, and county agencies.

For the one-week period ending March 14, 2025, the United States Attorney’s Office filed the following criminal charges in New Mexico:

• 38 individuals were charged with Illegal Reentry After Deportation (8 U.S.C. 1326)
• 5 individuals were charged with Alien Smuggling (8 U.S.C. 1324)
• 22 individuals were charged with Illegal Entry (8 U.S.C. 1325)

In one significant case, on March 7, 2025, authorities extradited transnational criminal organization leader Guillermo Amaro-Rodriguez from Mexico to New Mexico on a 2022 indictment, which charged him with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

In another significant case, Alejandro Villalobos-Torres was arrested on a criminal complaint accusing him of human smuggling and kidnapping two men in 2022.

Both cases are part of Operation Take Back America.

In a third case, Edgar Ivan Esparza-Labrador, a Mexican national previously convicted of burglary in 2012, was sentenced to 48 months in prison. U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended Esparza-Labrador in 2024 after he illegally re-entered the United States from Mexico.

Protecting law enforcement officers is essential to border security. During this period, federal prosecutors pursued a case involving assaults on federal officers in Santa Teresa. On March 7, 2025, Andrew Josiah Segura was arrested and charged with assaulting three U.S. Border Patrol agents in two separate incidents earlier that month. The criminal complaint was filed on February 28, 2025.

Since the start of Fiscal Year 2025, assailants have assaulted 40 El Paso Sector Border Patrol agents, following 103 assaults in Fiscal Year 2024. U.S. Border Patrol is working closely with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to ensure justice for those who assault federal officers. This inter-agency cooperation is vital in protecting the men and women who serve on the frontlines of the nation’s border security efforts and in deterring future attacks on law enforcement personnel.

These statistics reflect prosecutions conducted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico only. They do not include individuals apprehended by immigration enforcement officials who underwent only administrative processing.

Under current leadership, public safety and border security are the top priorities for the District of New Mexico. Increased enforcement efforts at the border and within the district have led to the identification of aliens involved in unlawful activities or with serious criminal histories, including human trafficking, sexual assault, and violence against children.

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

You can read more about here the case involving Guillermo Amaro-Rodriguez here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-nm/pr/mexican-national-extradited-us-face-federal-drug-trafficking-charges-new-mexico

The human smuggling case with Alejandro Villalobos-Torres can be found here, the criminal complaint is below: https://www.justice.gov/usao-nm/pr/suspect-arrested-2022-human-smuggling-and-kidnapping-case