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.
Carlos Murillo, a U.S. citizen, was arrested on April 30 for transporting Marcelino Garcia-Alejo, an illegal immigrant. He said he was recruited for human smuggling on Facebook, and believed he would be paid $700.
OTBA prioritizes the “total elimination” of cartels and TCOs, as outlined in Executive Order 14157, which designates these groups as foreign terrorist organizations. The prosecutions heavily focus on drug and human trafficking cases.
The press release said the 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).
Despite the ramped up efforts by the Trump administration to combat illegal immigration, Arizona’s top two Democratic state officials, Governor Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes, have expressed their opposition to the crackdown, with Mayes suing the Trump administration over it.
Hobbs publicly stated she will not support or participate in Trump’s deportation operations, describing them as “misguided policies” that harm communities. During a November 2024 press conference in Nogales, she said she would not tolerate policies that “terrorize communities,” citing Trump’s deportations.
In January 2025, Hobbs announced that Arizona would not use state resources to assist ICE in arresting illegal immigrants who “aren’t causing harm. … We’re going to stand up to the administration just like I have from day one when they’re not getting it right for Arizonans,” she said.
Mayes told The Guardian that Trump’s immigration policy would be a “bright red line for me. I will not stand for an attempt to deport them, or undermine them.” She also said, “If Trump tries to engage in family separation, or build mass deportation camps, I will do everything I can legally to fight that. That is not happening in Arizona, not on our soil.” Founder Mike Davis of the Article III Project, which defends constitutionalist judges and the rule of law, posted on X that Mayes could go to prison due to obstructing the incoming president.
The Trump administration is suing local and state officials for opposing his policies, and last month arrested a judge on charges of obstructing an immigration agent. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan, a Democrat, allegedly allowed Eduardo Flores-Ruiz to escape ICE by allowing him to exit her courtroom through a jury door.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Traffic Stopr Arrest” by ICE.
