Source: Office of United States Attorneys
PHOENIX, Ariz. – During the week of enforcement operations from May 10, 2025, through May 16, 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona brought immigration-related criminal charges against 310 individuals. Specifically, the United States filed 125 cases in which aliens illegally re-entered the United States, and the United States also charged 170 aliens for illegally entering the United States. In its ongoing effort to deter unlawful immigration, the United States charged 15 individuals responsible for smuggling illegal aliens into and within the District of Arizona.
These cases were referred or supported by federal law enforcement partners, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE ERO), ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Recent matters of interest include:
United States v. Angelica Ramos-Lopez: On May 10, 2025, Angelica Ramos-Lopez, a United States citizen, was charged with Conspiracy to Transport an Illegal Alien, Birth Certificate Fraud, and Aggravated Identity Theft. On May 9, 2025, Ramos-Lopez approached the State Route 85 immigration checkpoint near Gila Bend in a vehicle with a child lying down in the backseat, covered by a blanket from head to toe. Ramos-Lopez presented a birth certificate and United States passport for the child with a birth year of 2017 that listed Ramos -Lopez as the mother. However, the child who was in the vehicle provided a different name than the one found on the birth certificate and stated that the driver was his stepmother. In a post-Miranda interview, Ramos-Lopez admitted that she did not know who the child was, but that she knew the child was undocumented. Ramos-Lopez told officers that she was getting paid to transport the child from Mexico to Phoenix, Arizona. Ramos-Lopez stated that the birth certificate was real, but it belonged to her biological son, not the child passenger. [Case Number: MJ-25-6234]
United States v. Yolanda Mendivil-Diaz: On May 13, 2025, Yolanda Mendivil-Diaz was charged with Reentry of a Removed Alien. Mendivil-Diaz was previously removed from the United States in 2014 after being convicted for Conspiracy to Sell or Transfer Narcotic Drugs, a felony offense, in the Superior Court of Arizona. [Case Number: MJ-25-3192]
United States v. Jose Herrera Daniel: On May 14, 2025, Jose Herrera Daniel was charged by criminal complaint for attempting to illegally export ammunition from the United States into Mexico. The complaint alleges that United States Customs and Border Protection officers searched Daniel’s car at the Douglas Port of Entry and found 6,399 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition hidden in the vehicle. [Case Number: MJ-25-9008]
A criminal complaint is simply a method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raises no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
These cases are 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. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).
RELEASE NUMBER: 2025-078_May 16 Immigration Enforcement
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For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/
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