Justin R. Simmons

Remarks Following Sentencing Hearing on 53 Smuggled Migrant Deaths in Texas

delivered 27 June 2025, San Antonio, Texas

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio]

Thank you everyone for being here and covering this -- this important case. My name is Justin Simmons. I'm the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas.

I also want to thank some of the folks behind me today. Eric Fuchs, who's the lead AUSA [Assistant United States Attorney] on this case, prosecuted the case, presented the case at trial. His trial partner, Sarah Spears, who's not here today. Also want to thank Asset Forfeiture at AUSA, Ray Gattinella, who's also here, for his work in getting the assets, seizing the assets in this case. Other AUSA's that helped out with this case, AUSA Amanda Brown, who helped with the initial response to this case three years ago on this day. We also want to thank our legal support staff who did so much to put together all the discovery and all the evidence in this case and make sure it was properly stored and produced to defense counsel. And also thank Joe Cantu and his team in our litigation support section for their work in making sure everything was properly organized and everything was properly marked and presented at trial.

This truly was a cooperative effort and that -- that cooperation required our law enforcement partners who are also represented here today. I'd to thank all our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners who participated in this case in all their different capacities. Truly, truly was a cooperative effort, and this is what good law enforcement looks like -- when you've got multiple agencies coming together, nobody caring who gets the credit and just getting the job done.

And today was not the end of the job. There are other defendants that still have to be sentenced, and -- and at least one that has to be a case that may be tried. But this was a major milestone in this case with these individuals effectively going away for the rest of their lives. That is justice in this case. And while these sentences were good and right, it is right that these men are taken out of our public lives for the rest of their lives.

These sentences will never fill the void experienced by these families. And you could hear that hurt, you could hear that pain in the letters, if you were in the courtroom, in that Mr. Fuchs read. You know, I -- I was sitting there -- you think a lot about the victims and their families. But you don't think about all the spin-off consequences that the families experience: mothers who now have to work a lot more maybe than they used to, so they're not seeing their kids here as much; family members who experienced so much stress at the loss of their loved ones that their own health deteriorated and they subsequently passed away. You just don't think about those things. And so, those things are very important for us to remember. And while the sentences today will never completely fill the void that these men carved into the hearts of these victims' families, I hope it at least helps them a little bit with -- with the healing process. I hope they can find solace ultimately in the fact that these men will never breathe free air again.

Click above image for direct access enlargement. Photos of victims of a cartel migrant smuggling operation in Texas as displayed during a post sentencing hearing press conference. Credit: AP /Eric Gay.

I also want to talk a little bit about the fact that we should make sure that the deaths of these 54 people and the injuries suffered by the other 11 are not in vain. So, my message to those who are south of the border and may be considering coming across in a manner similar to this:
Cartels do not care about you.
They do not care about your hopes and dreams.
They do not care about your desire for a better life.
They care about money, first and foremost.
They...care about money, first and foremost.

There were 64 people in this -- in this tractor trailer. The estimate is they paid at least $12,000 each. That's $768,000 that the cartels made off of this group of people. This trip alone, $768,000. They're still enjoying that money over there in Mexico. It's not like they give the money back when you die or when you get picked up by law enforcement. They're still enjoying it.

From November of 2021 through June of 2022, it's estimated that this cell moved approximately 1100 people across the border. At $12,000 a piece, that's over $13 million in revenue to the cartel just from this cell. The reality is the cartels have made billions of dollars smuggling humans across the border over the last several years.

The United States has taken a whole-of-government approach to combating alien smuggling and illegal immigration. And by doing that, by taking this whole government approach, we've effectively shut off a major income stream for the cartels. In addition to that, we've also made it much harder for them to move their drugs across the street because they use -- across the border. They use these humans to disguise their drug loads. And because of our work, because of our cooperative efforts, it's much harder for them to move poisons like fentanyl and other drugs across the border. To be clear, our goal as the United States government, the Department of Justice, and the U.S. Attorney's Office is the 100 % complete eradication of Mexican drug cartels. That's our mission. That's what we're going to do.

But all of this rhetoric doesn't heal the wounds that the victims -- that the victims that are still with us and the victims families, the families of those who passed away, the wounds that they suffered.¹ So, my prayers for them are for fond memories and hopefully some degree of healing, though those wounds will never be completely healed. Please know that the United States government will work to hold everyone responsible for the deaths of these 54 people to account. And we will do everything we can to make sure tragedies like this don't happen again.

¹ Rhetoric, among the other arts, is well situated to provide rational, social, psychological solace to the grieving and has been used as such for centuries. Still, the above remarks evince a rare instance of the term rhetoric deployed in a relatively positive context  e.g. "...the complete eradication of Mexican drug cartels...."

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Original Image Source: BorderReport.com

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