More Than 1,020 Illegal Immigrants Charged With Immigration-Related Crimes

Alleged offenses include illegally reentering the United States, smuggling people into the country, and importing controlled substances.

Venezuelan illegal immigrants deported from the United States disembark from a Conviasa Airlines plane at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, on March 24, 2025. Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. attorneys from southwestern border districts this past week continued the crackdown on illegal immigration under the Trump administration.

“The U.S. Attorneys for Arizona, Central California, Southern California, New Mexico, Southern Texas, and Western Texas charged more than 1,020 defendants with criminal violations of U.S. immigration laws,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in an April 14 statement.

The Southern District of Texas filed 229 cases related to border security issues, which include 80 individuals facing “allegations of illegally reentering the country, with the majority having felony convictions such as narcotics, firearms or sexual offenses, or prior immigration crimes.”

In the District of Arizona, 261 illegal immigrants faced immigration-related criminal charges, with 103 facing illegal reentry charges. Fourteen cases were filed against 18 people alleged to have smuggled illegal immigrants into the region.

A total of 116 border-related cases were filed against illegal immigrants in the Southern District of California, with charges including “transportation of illegal aliens, bringing in aliens for financial gain, receipt of bribes by public officials, reentering the U.S. after deportation, and importation of controlled substances.”

The Western District of Texas filed 295 cases related to immigration and immigration-related criminal matters.

In late February, law enforcement arrested 68 members of the notorious gang Tren de Aragua (TdA). Originating in Venezuela, the gang has been designated as a terrorist organization by the State Department.

Earlier this month, ICE announced the arrest of 133 individuals in New York during an operation focusing on “criminal illegal alien offenders and other immigration violators.” Twenty of those arrested had prior criminal convictions or charges, including three who were convicted of homicide.

During the first 50 days of the Trump administration, ICE arrested 32,809 illegal immigrants, including 14,111 convicted criminals, with 9,980 carrying pending charges against them. The 32,809 arrests almost equaled the total arrests made during all of fiscal year 2024.

The recent arrests of over 1,020 illegals by southwestern border districts were made as part of Operation Take Back America, a “nationwide initiative to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from perpetrators of violent crime,” according to the Justice Department.

Tackling Illegal Immigration

The Trump administration has faced legal challenges in its policies aimed at dealing with illegal immigrants.

On Monday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the deportation of two alleged TdA gang members as part of a lawsuit filed on April 12.

The individuals were flagged for removal under a March 15 proclamation by Trump that invoked the Alien Enemies Act. The duo had entered the United States illegally and are being held in an ICE detention facility in Aurora, Colorado.

The lawsuit, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, challenged Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act and argued that the illegal immigrants were denied due process.

In a previous case related to pursuing the Alien Enemies Act to remove noncitizens from the United States, according to the complaint, the Supreme Court asked the government to provide a notice “within a reasonable time.”

“To date, the government has not indicated the type of notice they intend to provide or how much time they will give individuals before seeking to remove them” under the Alien Enemies Act, the lawsuit said.

“However, in a hearing in the Southern District of Texas on Friday, April 11, the government said they had not ruled out the possibility that individuals will receive no more than 24 hours’ notice; the government did not say whether it was considering providing even less than 24 hours.”

Last month, a group of Democratic lawmakers criticized Trump’s invocation of the Act to target illegal immigrants who are alleged or confirmed foreign gang members, alleging that deploying the “archaic wartime law—not used since World War II—for immigration enforcement is yet another unlawful and brazen power grab.”

In the March 15 proclamation, Trump stated that TdA gang members are an invading force that must be deported from the country quickly to protect American citizens.

“TdA has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States,” the proclamation says, referring to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Agencies under the Trump administration have also moved to halt illegal immigration into the United States.

For instance, on March 25, the Department of Homeland Security formally ended programs created in 2022 and 2023 that allowed roughly half a million citizens from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua to request entry into the United States together with their families.

“These programs do not serve a significant public benefit, are not necessary to reduce levels of illegal immigration, did not sufficiently mitigate the domestic effects of illegal immigration, are not serving their intended purposes, and are inconsistent with the administration’s foreign policy goals,” the agency stated in a March 25 notice.