(The Center Square) – In one year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico has filed a record 9,081 criminal cases related to border security and immigration enforcement.
The record was achieved under First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison, who’s been leading the U.S. Attorney’s Office since last April. Under the Trump administration, the office has been aggressively prosecuting border related crimes, The Center Square reported.
The total is nearly triple what it was the year prior of 3,457 criminal cases prosecuted between April 2024 and April 2025, according to Ellison’s office.
Prosecutions span a range of crimes, including illegal reentry, alien smuggling, immigration fraud, false statements, firearms offenses and drug trafficking stemming from federal border enforcement efforts.
Key cases included prosecuting Venezuelan Foreign Terrorist Organization, Tren de Aragua members, including a major case involving the kidnapping, murder and burying a victim in a remote desert grave. Other cases involved previously arrested or convicted foreign nationals with serious criminal offenses, including homicide, sexual assault, aggravated battery, drug trafficking, burglary-forced entry, among other charges, The Center Square reported.
“These cases show how transnational criminal organizations exploit people for profit, import violence across our southern border, and poison our communities with drugs and weapons,” Ellison said. “In New Mexico, we are focused on identifying the leaders, dismantling the networks they rely on, and using federal prosecutions to disrupt these operations at every level.”
While a record number of illegal border crossers were apprehended in New Mexico during the Biden administration, numbers increased even more after Texas border security efforts ramped up, The Center Square reported.
In 2022, illegal entries skyrocketed in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection El Paso Sector, which includes two west Texas counties and all of New Mexico. In November 2022 alone, more than 53,500 illegal border crossers and 24,000 gotaways were reported in the sector with the majority in New Mexico, The Center Square reported. Overall, 143,857 illegal foreign nationals were apprehended in New Mexico in fiscal 2022, according to CBP data obtained by The Center Square.
At the time, El Paso’s Democratic mayor declared a state of emergency and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott deployed 400 National Guard troops to the Texas-New Mexico-Mexico border.
By 2023, the highest number of illegal border crossers was reported in New Mexico in U.S. history, of 170,852, The Center Square reported.
Also at the time, New Mexico’s Democratic governor refused to implement border security measures or participate in Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star. In contrast, neighboring Republican governors from Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana did.
As OLS ramped up in west Texas in 2023, the situation got so bad in New Mexico that state Republican lawmakers came to Texas searching for solutions, The Center Square reported.
By 2024, OLS operations involved erecting barriers to prevent illegal entry into Texas from Mexico and New Mexico, The Center Square exclusively reported. That year, 121,518 illegal border crossers were reported in New Mexico, The Center Square exclusively reported.
Most border crime arrests in New Mexico were made by El Paso Sector Border Patrol agents primarily in the Santa Teresa Station area located roughly 30 minutes from El Paso, Texas, The Center Square reported. The area was hit hard by border crime. Other arrests were made through multi-agency operations targeting criminal networks involved in human smuggling, drug trafficking, firearms offenses, and national security, The Center Square reported.
Ellison’s office is participating in multiple federal task forces and operations. Multiple state and local organizations are also involved, including Texas Department of Public Safety, El Paso Police Department, New Mexico State Police, West Texas/New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA), Albuquerque Police Department, among others.
The record border crime prosecutions are in addition to a significant civil caseload, including habeas corpus matters tied to immigration detention and federal custody proceedings, his office said.
Within the first year of the Trump administration, illegal entries in New Mexico dropped by 80% from the record high reported in 2023, The Center Square reported. In fiscal year 2025, 36,116 illegal border crossers were apprehended in New Mexico, The Center Square reported.
The Trump administration is also expanding more than 70 miles of border wall construction as well as more than 150 miles of technological system attributes in New Mexico, The Center Square reported.
