Guatemalan national indicted for allegedly smuggling teen girl into the US

A Guatemalan nationalist residing successful the U.S. illegally has been indicted for his alleged relation successful smuggling a 14-year-old miss into the country.

Juan Tiul Xi, 26, was indicted connected Thursday for allegedly coaxing a 14-year-old miss into illegally entering the U.S., according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) statement. Tiul Xi is besides accused of submitting a sponsorship exertion containing mendacious statements to summation custody of the teen.

"The anterior administration’s borderline policies created an situation that enabled quality trafficking and allowed atrocious actors to instrumentality vantage of at-risk children," Attorney General Pam Bondi said successful a statement. "We are committed to protecting children from the scourge of quality trafficking and volition not remainder until we present justness for those who suffered during the borderline crisis."

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announces the apprehension of pack members progressive successful 4 homicides, Friday, April 4, 2025, successful Fort Lauderdale, Fla.  (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

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Tiul Xi allegedly entered the U.S. illegally nether the Biden medication successful 2023. The DOJ alleges that aft entering the state illegally, Tiul Xi encouraged the teen to accidental she was his sister. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) past  reportedly relied connected Tiul Xi’s mendacious statements to merchandise the teen into his custody connected Sept. 5, 2023.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, on with different national instrumentality enforcement agencies, be a pre-enforcement gathering successful Chicago, Illinois, connected Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025.  (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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The DOJ says Tiul Xi is charged with 1 number of encouraging oregon inducing amerciable introduction for fiscal gain, 1 number of making a false, fictitious, oregon fraudulent statement, and 1 number of aggravated individuality theft. If convicted, helium faces up to 10 years successful situation for encouraging amerciable entry, up to 5 years for the mendacious statement, and 2 years for the individuality theft charge, according to the DOJ.

"This lawsuit is simply a testament to ICE’s committedness to clasp predators accountable for the harm they inflict connected children," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons.

Officers from the FBI behaviour migration enforcement successful New York connected Thursday, January 30, 2025. (FBI)

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ORR Acting Director Angie M. Salazar said that the bureau has "significantly increased" its sponsor vetting process which present prioritizes "the well-being of the child."

"We anticipation that our committedness is evident by our collaboration with instrumentality enforcement to close erstwhile wrongs and assistance bring these crimes to light," Salazar said successful a DOJ property merchandise connected Tiul Xi’s indictment.

The lawsuit is portion of the DOJ’s Operation Take Back America, which the DOJ says aims to combat "the ongoing threats and risks that the American radical elected President Trump to address."