On April 25, Homeland Security special agents in Oklahoma City were notified by Customs and Border Protection that an aircraft had “unlawfully entered the U.S. from Mexico and failed to stop for a customs inspection.”
The pilot also “failed to adhere to instruction of Mexican authorities,” U.S. agents were told. The pilot “did not have authorization to take off” but did so anyway, and when ordered to land the plane in Mexico the pilot “failed to comply.”
The Beechcraft Bonanza V35 six-seater single-engine airplane was tracked to Sundance Airport near Yukon, where Armando Morales-Alvarado, 57, was detained. He handed the agents a consular ID card from Mexico, but database records checks revealed that Morales-Alvarado was deported from the United States in 1990 and again in 2005 and that he did not apply for, nor receive, permission to reenter the United States.
A grand jury in Oklahoma City’s federal district court indicted Morales-Alvarado on a criminal charge of illegal reentry after removal from the United States. He was released from custody on a $5,000 unsecured bond pending a jury trial in November.
Illegal entry or reentry into the United States is more than just an academic subject to Oklahoma, which remains on the front lines of this issue. Twenty other cases of illegal entry or reentry into the United States were filed in federal courts in this state during July and August alone.
• A federal deportation officer encountered Santiago Arres- Villa, 40, in the Comanche County Detention Center in Lawton on June 26. A records check showed that Arres-Villa was previously deported from the U.S. to Mexico in March and August 2016 and again in August 2019.
He was indicted in Oklahoma City federal court July 17 on a criminal charge of illegal reentry of a removed alien. Arres-Villa was arraigned Aug. 1 and remained in custody as of Aug. 17. His case is scheduled on the court’s Sept. 16 trial docket.
• A deportation officer found Eduardo Olalde-Olalde, 34, who was deported from the U.S. in 2011, in the Stephens County Jail at Duncan in February. He remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service last week.
• Kevin Gabriel Frutis-Ruiz, 29, was arrested June 22 in western Oklahoma. He was indicted Aug. 7 on a criminal charge of reentry of an alien who was previously deported from the U.S. five times in 2015 and once in 2018.
• David Castillo-Reyes, 35, was in the Oklahoma County Jail in Oklahoma City when a federal deportation officer found him on April 15. Reyes was deported to Mexico in 2010, 2011, 2014 and in 2022, records show. He was indicted by an Oklahoma City federal grand jury July 2 on a criminal charge of reentry after removal, and was deported three days later, court records reflect.
• Abner Asael Rivas-Aristondo, 22, was arrested in Tulsa on April 29 after a traffic stop. A Tulsa County sheriff’s deputy reported seeing a pickup transporting eight individuals in the bed of the truck and stopped the vehicle; four juveniles were riding in the cab with the driver.
A pistol was found in the cab and the driver, Rivas- Aristondo, presented a counterfeit U.S. Permanent Resident Card and used an identification registered to a Canadian. Additionally, Rivas had been deported from the U.S. to El Salvador in 2019, records showed.
He was indicted in Tulsa’s Northern District federal court July 16 on three criminal charges: alien unlawfully in the U.S. in possession of a firearm, possession of fraudulent immigration documents, and aggravated identity theft. Federal prosecutors also filed a forfeiture application to seize the 9mm pistol that was confiscated from the pickup. Rivas-Aristondo remains in federal custody, court records indicate.
• Dany Uriel Gramajo-Rodas, 42, was deported from the U.S. to Guatemala in 2022, but a deportation officer found him in the Oklahoma County Jail on June 13. Gramajo-Rodas was arraigned in Oklahoma City federal court Aug. 15 and remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
• Efren De Jesus Nunez-Martinez, 31, was arraigned in Oklahoma City federal district court Aug. 1 on a criminal charge of illegal reentry after removal from the U.S. A federal deportation officer found Nunez-Martinez in the Oklahoma County Jail on May 4, and discovered that he was previously expelled in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015.
• Others indicted in July or August in either Tulsa’s or Oklahoma City’s federal district court for illegal reentry included: Jorge Luis Barron Trejo, 43, who was removed from the U.S. in 2007 and 2011; Aroldo Baudilio Miranda- Dionisio, 53, a Guatemalan national who was removed in 2017; Jose Eric Franco-Adame, 44, who was deported from the U.S. in 2010 and twice in 2015; Arturo Procayo Rellanos, 43, a Mexican national previously deported from the U.S. in March; Omar Esquivel Delgado, 36, deported in 2022; Gabino Cabrera-Martinez, 30, a Mexican national who was deported in 2017; Marvin Alexander Hernandez- Jacinto, 32, who was kicked out of the U.S. in 2023; Leonardo Garcia-Martinez, 41, a Mexican national previously deported in 2003; Jose Ananias Hernandez-Garcia, 33, removed in 2022; Juan Carlos Rincon-Castro, a Mexican national who was removed from the U.S. in March 2023; Pedro Balderas- Martinez, 40, a Mexican national deported in 2008; Alejandro Martinez-Lopez, 42, a Mexican national removed in 2013; and Anderson Jaleth Gomez-Ayala, 19, a Honduran national, who entered the U.S. illegally and was in possession of a firearm when he was arrested in Tulsa.