The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona announced on Friday in a press release that immigration related criminal charges against 287 defendants were brought within 10 days, April 26 through May 5. Part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, known as Operation Take Back America (OTBA), the charges were for entering the country illegally, reentering the country illegally, and human smuggling.
The office has been steadily bringing illegal immigration related charges against defendants since OTBA launched in March. Some of the previous weeks have surpassed the average weekly numbers during the Biden administration last year. Between April 12-18, the office brought 329 charges, far more than the weekly average under President Joe Biden last year of 250 charges per week.
President Donald Trump also ramped up illegal immigration prosecutions during his previous term as president. A 2019 study from the Pew Research Center found that during Trump’s first full fiscal year in 2018, arrests rose to 108,667, well over 58,031 the previous year — a nearly 87 percent increase. Prosecutions rose by 66 percent, from 59,797 to 99,479, marking a two-decade high. Pew found that arrests for unauthorized entry increased from 27,657 in fiscal 2017 to 61,581 in fiscal 2018.
In contrast, during the Biden administration, there was a 55 percent decrease in convictions compared to Trump’s first three years.
Southwest prosecutors are leading the effort. U.S. Attorneys in Arizona, Central California, Southern California, New Mexico, Southern Texas, and Western Texas brought over 1,220 charges during a single week in April.
The press release highlighted some of the defendants. Krystal Lopez was arrested on April 29 for smuggling illegal immigrants in her vehicle. One illegal immigrant was hiding underneath a blanket in her back seat, and two more were found in the trunk. Law enforcement approached her car at a gas station after running its license plate and discovering a history of human smuggling. Lopez had been arrested a month earlier for human smuggling and was awaiting trial.
Gloria Lopez Corona was also arrested on April 29, for attempting to smuggle a child over the border. She had a birth certificate that said the child was age 2, but the child was actually age 5. Agents found the child’s mother, Cecilia Hernandez Reyes, who admitted turning over her child to be smuggled, and arrested her too.
