Nearly 200 charged in New Mexico on immigration crimes

(The Center Square) – As U.S. attorneys continue to charge illegal border crossers for crimes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico is playing a key role in a state whose governor has refused to partner with Texas or federal border security efforts.

In one week, 190 charges were brought against illegal border crossers in New Mexico, including 78 with illegal reentry after previously being deported, 10 with “alien smuggling,” 36 with illegal entry, 66 with illegal entry in violation of a military security regulation and entering military, Naval or Coast Guard property in a newly established National Defense Area in New Mexico, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Many charged have prior criminal convictions including for burglary, DUI, “alien smuggling and reentry of a deported alien.”

In one case, a Texas woman, Georgina Ramirez, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to transporting illegal border crossers and engaging in a high-speed chase that resulted in a fatality near Las Cruces, New Mexico.

After failing to comply at a Border Patrol check point heading west from El Paso, Texas, she fled to New Mexico, leading Border Patrol agents on a six-mile pursuit. Speeding up to 110 miles per hour, she also turned off her headlights in an attempt to evade detection, according to the complaint. She eventually stopped in the median of the highway, where she and five passengers bailed out and fled on foot. One attempted to cross the interstate and was hit by a semi-truck and died. She and the remaining four were apprehended.

Ramirez later admitted that she had agreed to transport illegal border crossers to Deming, New Mexico; her phone messages and recordings showed she coordinated with a coyote, “who advised her on checkpoint activity, as well as ‘proof of life’ videos of the smuggled individuals,” according to the complaint.

In another case, two men were indicted on human smuggling and kidnapping charges in Albuquerque after a woman contacted the FBI claiming her spouse had been kidnapped and was being held for ransom. The kidnappers demanded 90,000 Guatemalan quetzales (roughly $11,600) and threatened to turn him over to the Mexican Zeta Cartel if they didn’t make the payment for smuggling him into the country. “Proof of life” videos were also sent to his family, according to the complaint.

Using phone data from the ransom calls, investigators traced the alleged kidnappers’ location to a stash house in southwest Albuquerque. They then executed a search warrant and found 11 illegal foreign nationals, including an unaccompanied minor, inside. They also found and apprehended two defendants, Isaias David Jose and Tomas Mateo Gaspar, and seized more than 20 cell phones and a ledger of their alleged smuggling activity.

The smuggled foreign nationals told federal agents they’d been locked inside rooms in the stash house, were threatened with violence or threatened with being turned over to criminal organizations and told not to talk to law enforcement, authorities said. They also positively identified Jose and Gaspar as running the stash house and making the ransom videos, authorities said.

Jose and Gaspar were indicted on charges of “harboring an illegal alien and aiding and abetting” and remain in custody pending trial.

The charges and indictments come after New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security efforts after Texas National Guard soldiers erected barriers to secure the Texas and New Mexico borders, The Center Square reported.

After Texas’ border security operations expanded, illegal border crossings shifted west, into New Mexico, Arizona and California, The Center Square first reported. Lujan Grisham is Texas’ only neighbor not to participate in Texas’ OLS, unlike Oklahoma and Louisiana.

State Senate Republicans and community leaders traveled from New Mexico to Texas last June to be briefed by Operation Lone Star officials and learn how New Mexico could replicate Texas’ border security efforts, The Center Square reported.

Texas Department of Public Safety OLS officers were also involved in taking down a human smuggling ring tied to Mexican cartels operating out of El Paso County and in Sunland Park, New Mexico, seizing weapons, body armor, and ammunition, The Center Square reported.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, a record more than 143,000 illegal border crossers were apprehended or encountered in New Mexico in fiscal 2022, nearly 171,000 in fiscal 2023 and more than 121,500 in fiscal 2024. Through April of fiscal 2025, the number dropped to 31,510, according to the data.

Nearly 9,000 were reported in October of last year under the Biden administration. By April, under the Trump administration, the number dropped to 1,380, according to the data.