NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED FEDERAL LAWYERS
What is alien smuggling
|Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group. We’re a second generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek – with over 40 years of combined experience handling federal criminal defense cases across the country. If you’re on our website, it’s because you’re facing serious federal charges, or someone you know is. Alien smuggling charges are federal – that means the U.S. government is prosecuting you, not the state. These cases are investigated by ICE, Homeland Security Investigations, and Border Patrol, then prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys who have endless resources.
Our managing partner, Todd Spodek, is a seasoned criminal defense attorney who has many, many years of experience. He’s a second-generation criminal defense lawyer – his father was also an attorney. You may recognize our firm from high-profile cases, like representing Anna Delvey in the Netflix series “Inventing Anna,” handling the Ghislaine Maxwell juror misconduct case, or defending clients in complex federal fraud conspiracies. We’ve handled cases others say were unwinnable. If you’re reading this, you need to understand what alien smuggling is, what the federal government has to prove, and what kind of prison time you’re looking at in 2025.
What Alien Smuggling Actually Means Under Federal Law
Alien smuggling isn’t just one thing. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1324, the federal statute prosecutors use, there are multiple ways to violate the law. You can be charged for bringing someone into the United States at a place other than a designated port of entry. That’s the classic border crossing scenario – helping someone cross illegally between checkpoints.
But it goes further than that. Transporting an undocumented person within the United States, even if you had nothing to do with them entering the country, is also alien smuggling under subsection 1324(a)(1)(A)(ii). If you know or recklessly disregard that someone is here illegally, and you move them from one state to another in furtherance of their illegal presence – you’re exposed to federal charges. Prosecutors love these cases because they’re straightforward to prove. Did you drive the person? Did you know their immigration status? That’s it. That’s the case.
Harboring and concealing are separate violations. If you provide shelter, employment, or help someone avoid detection by immigration authorities, the government can charge you with harboring. Even encouraging or inducing an alien to enter or remain in the United States illegally can trigger prosecution – though according to DOJ guidance, this provision has constitutional limits that courts continue to refine.
Federal Prosecutors Are Aggressive in 2025
A 2025 DOJ memo directs federal prosecutors to pursue “the most serious, readily provable offenses” and to pursue charges relating to criminal immigration-related violations whenever such violations are presented by federal, state, or local law enforcement. That directive isn’t theoretical.
In July 2025, a Honduran national named Enil Edil Mejia-Zuniga was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for his leadership role in a massive alien smuggling conspiracy. From November 2020 through March 2023, Mejia-Zuniga’s organization smuggled between 2,500 and 3,000 people from Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, India, Pakistan, and Colombia through Eagle Pass, Texas. The organization charged between $6,500 and $12,000 per person. Mejia-Zuniga personally made $30,000 for every 10 people who made it to the Rio Grande River, and another $30,000 if those 10 made it to San Antonio. Federal prosecutors built the case using cooperating witnesses, financial records, and intercepted communications – then stacked his sentence with enhancements for commercial activity and the sheer number of people involved.
That same year, three former Fort Hood soldiers were sentenced for alien smuggling. Enrique Jauregui organized the operation, recruiting fellow soldiers Angel Palma and Emilio Mendoza-Lopez, providing them with GPS coordinates to pick up migrants, and coordinating payment. Palma and Mendoza-Lopez each got 24 months in federal prison. Jauregui got 33 months for aiding and abetting the transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain. These were active duty soldiers – the federal government prosecuted them anyway.
In Miami, a 25-year-old Cuban woman who was in the country unlawfully was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for her role in a for-profit scheme to smuggle 18 Cubans by boat from Cuba across the Florida Straits. Sixteen people died during the trip. The judge didn’t show leniency because people died – the judge imposed a harsh sentence because people died. That’s how federal sentencing works in these cases. Harm equals time.
Sentencing Ranges Scale Dramatically Based on Specific Factors
Under 8 U.S.C. § 1324, the baseline penalties depend on what you did and why. Bringing in an unauthorized alien – up to one year if there’s no financial motive. But if you did it for financial gain, the maximum jumps to 10 years. If you smuggled someone illegally across the border, that’s up to 10 years. Transporting someone illegally within the United States – up to 5 years.
Those are just starting points. If the person you smuggled or transported caused serious bodily injury to someone, or if their presence placed someone’s life in jeopardy, the maximum penalty becomes 20 years. If anyone dies as a result of the violation – you’re looking at up to life in prison. Federal prosecutors apply these enhancements liberally. A car accident during transport? Serious bodily injury enhancement. A migrant gets heatstroke in the back of a truck? Life-threatening situation. The government will argue for the enhancement, and judges often agree.
Sentencing can increase by up to 10 additional years if your offense was part of an ongoing commercial organization or enterprise, if you transported aliens in groups of 10 or more, or if you transported them in a manner that endangered their lives. These aren’t alternative enhancements – they can stack. Federal sentencing guidelines under USSG §2L1.1 provide the framework judges use to calculate your actual sentence, and according to U.S. Sentencing Commission data, the average guideline minimum in fiscal year 2024 was 17 months, with an average sentence imposed of 15 months. But those are averages – they include lower-level cases. If you’re charged with leading a smuggling organization, transporting large groups, or causing harm, your guideline range will be much, much higher.
These Charges Apply Even if You Were Helping Family
People think if they were helping a relative, the federal government won’t prosecute. That’s wrong. The statute doesn’t have a family member exception. What matters is whether you did it for “commercial advantage or private financial gain.” If you charged your cousin $2,000 to drive them from the border to Houston, that’s commercial. If you paid a coyote to bring your sister across and you coordinated logistics – you can be charged with conspiracy.
Non-profit conduct and family relationships can reduce your offense level under the sentencing guidelines. USSG §2L1.1 includes a reduction if the offense didn’t involve smuggling, transporting, or harboring for profit. But that reduction doesn’t eliminate your exposure – it just lowers your guideline range. You’re still facing a federal conviction. You’re still going to federal prison, in most cases. The question becomes whether you’re doing 12 months or 36 months, not whether you’re doing time at all.
Federal prosecutors in 2025 are looking at motive. Were you paid? Did you expect anything of value in return – even indirectly? Did you do this more than once? A single instance helping a family member without payment is treated differently than coordinating multiple trips for different people, even if they’re all relatives. The moment money changes hands, or the moment it looks like an ongoing operation, prosecutors will charge you as if you’re running a smuggling business.
Asset Forfeiture Comes With the Charges
Under 8 U.S.C. § 1324, any vehicle, vessel, or aircraft used in the commission of alien smuggling can be seized and forfeited. The gross proceeds from the violation – whatever you were paid – can be seized. Any property traceable to those proceeds can be seized. Federal authorities use civil asset forfeiture, which means they can take your property even before you’re convicted. You have to fight to get it back, and that fight happens in a separate proceeding from your criminal case.
If you picked up migrants in your personal truck, the government will seize the truck. If you used your boat, they’ll seize the boat. If you deposited smuggling proceeds into your bank account, they’ll freeze the account and forfeit the funds. These forfeitures happen fast – often within days of your arrest. By the time you hire a lawyer, your assets are already gone. We’ve seen cases where defendants lose vehicles worth $50,000 or more because they made a single smuggling trip for $1,500.
Conspiracy Charges Expand Who Gets Prosecuted
Most alien smuggling cases are charged as conspiracies under 18 U.S.C. § 371 or as aiding and abetting under 18 U.S.C. § 2. Conspiracy is powerful for prosecutors because they don’t need to prove you personally smuggled anyone – they only need to prove you agreed to participate in the smuggling operation and someone in the conspiracy took one overt act in furtherance of it. You can be 500 miles away when the actual smuggling happens. If you coordinated logistics, provided a vehicle, scouted routes, or received payment on behalf of the organization, you’re part of the conspiracy.
Aiding and abetting works the same way. If you knowingly assisted someone else in smuggling, even in a minor role, you’re criminally liable to the same extent as the person who did the smuggling. That’s how the Fort Hood soldiers ended up with nearly identical sentences despite having different roles – they were all found to have aided and abetted the same offense.
Federal prosecutors use cooperating witnesses to build conspiracy cases. Someone gets arrested at the border, and within hours, they’re cooperating – giving names, phone numbers, payment details. Those statements become evidence against everyone else in the chain. We’ve defended clients who had no idea they were part of a “conspiracy” until they saw the indictment listing a dozen co-defendants they barely knew.
Your Defense Depends on What the Government Can Prove
The government has to prove you knew or recklessly disregarded that the person was unlawfully in the United States. That knowledge element is critical. If you gave a ride to someone and genuinely didn’t know their immigration status, and you had no reason to know, that’s a defense. But federal prosecutors will point to circumstantial evidence – the person didn’t speak English, they had no identification, they were in a remote area near the border, they paid cash. Juries often infer knowledge from these facts, even when there’s no direct proof.
Another defense is lack of intent to further the illegal presence. If you transported someone for a legitimate purpose unrelated to helping them evade immigration authorities, that can negate the “in furtherance” element. But courts interpret “in furtherance” broadly – almost any transportation of an undocumented person can be seen as furthering their illegal presence simply by moving them to a new location.
At Spodek Law Group – we focus on challenging the government’s evidence at every stage. Did agents violate your Fourth Amendment rights during the vehicle stop? Was there probable cause for the search? Did they coerce statements from you without proper Miranda warnings? These issues can suppress evidence or even get charges dismissed. We also negotiate with prosecutors before indictment when possible – sometimes we can convince them the evidence doesn’t support the charge, or that our client’s role was minimal and doesn’t warrant federal prosecution.
Cooperation Can Reduce Sentences But Comes With Risks
Many defendants in alien smuggling cases are offered cooperation agreements. The government wants to move up the chain – they want the organizers, the financiers, the people running networks across multiple states. If you cooperate, you can get a substantial assistance departure under U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1 or a government-sponsored motion under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(e), which can reduce your sentence below the mandatory minimum if one applies.
But cooperation isn’t simple. You have to proffer – that means sitting down with prosecutors and agents, telling them everything you know, and giving them usable information against others. If you lie or withhold information, the agreement is void, and anything you said can be used against you. If the people you cooperate against find out, you could face retaliation. If your information doesn’t lead to successful prosecutions, the government may decide your cooperation wasn’t “substantial” and refuse to file the motion.
We advise clients on cooperation decisions carefully. Sometimes cooperation makes sense – you have valuable information, the government’s case against you is strong, and the sentence reduction is significant. Other times, cooperation is a trap – you don’t know enough to be useful, or the people you’d testify against are dangerous. Every case is different. We never pressure clients to cooperate, but we make sure they understand the options and consequences before deciding.
If you’re facing alien smuggling charges, you need experienced federal criminal defense attorneys who understand immigration enforcement, sentencing guidelines, and how to negotiate with federal prosecutors. At Spodek Law Group – we’ve handled these cases. We know what the government is looking for, we know how to build defenses, and we know when to fight and when to negotiate. You can reach us 24/7. Your future depends on the decisions you make right now – make sure you have the right lawyers making those decisions with you.