Social media posts hint at federal crackdown on illegal immigration in Utah

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Social media posts offer a glimpse into the federal crackdown on illegal immigration in Utah, a priority of the Trump administration.
Numerous suspected immigrants here illegally have been detained and/or deported, the posts show, though officials in Utah haven't quantified the activity.
The U.S. Attorney's Office has issued a slew of statements outlining moves to prosecute suspected foreign drug traffickers.

SALT LAKE CITY — Though a big focus of national attention, federal officials assisting with the crackdown on illegal immigration in Utah haven't said much publicly about the efforts here.

That doesn't mean they aren't active.

A steady stream of social media posts since the start of President Donald Trump's second term offers insights into what federal law enforcement officials are doing in Utah and the criminal activity linked to the immigrants they're encountering. The posts have gotten increasingly detailed since around mid-March, paralleled by a flurry of press releases this month from the U.S. Attorney's Office of Utah detailing arrests of foreign nationals on drug-trafficking charges.

It's not clear from the varied posts and press releases how representative the illicit activity involving immigrants is in the overall scheme of criminal activity in Utah. It's also not clear how the enforcement action now compares to efforts before Trump took office, though the output seems to indicate a notable uptick. At any rate, the messaging — most notably on the X account of the Salt Lake City field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement — offers a sense of the range of alleged bad actors among the immigrants here in Utah.

One man deported to Guatemala had been arrested in West Valley City in December on suspicion of public intoxication and possession of fake identity documents. A man originally from Mexico convicted in a 2021 attempted object rape case in Ogden is now being held at an ICE detention center. A suspect in a "gang-related" confrontation in Herriman last year that KSL.com previously covered faces deportation to Venezuela.

The composite image of three photos from the ICE Salt Lake City X account show, from left, Jeanne Marie Medel-Garay, the detention of a suspect in St. George, and Jose Mariano Viloria Valera. (Photo: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Salt Lake City field office)

The varied X posts call out suspected involvement by immigrants here in organized theft rings — the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang and MS-13, the gang that originated in California among Salvadoran and other Central American immigrants. The U.S. Attorney's Office press releases reference unnamed drug-trafficking organizations operating in Utah and, more recently, Operation Take Back America, a federal initiative launched March 6 to combat illegal immigration and international drug cartels.

Reps from neither ICE, in charge of enforcing U.S. immigration law, nor the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, responded to KSL.com queries seeking more details of their efforts.

The following is a look at some of the actions in Utah targeting immigrants here illegally since Trump took office, pulling from social media, press releases and other public documents:

March 25: Santos Cucul-Tzalam

A Salt Lake City ICE post from Tuesday says Santos Cucul-Tzalam, 46, had been deported to Guatemala, where he's wanted by local law enforcement authorities. Online court records show Cucul-Tzalam, then listing a home address in Magna, was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication after being discovered lying on the ground in a West Valley City neighborhood. He allegedly had a fake U.S. permanent resident card and Social Security card with a number belonging to a New York woman, resulting in two charges of possession of forged documents.

Despite Cucul-Tzalam's deportation, his Utah case was still pending in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City as of Wednesday.

March 24: ICE Air in Utah

A post from Monday shows an airplane on a tarmac with the caption, "ICE Air in Utah: Loaded up and ready to go," suggesting a planeload of deportees was headed out of the United States. Two agents wearing coats with ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations insignia stand in the foreground.

March 21: MS-13, Tren de Aragua and Benjamin Zavala

A March 21 Salt Lake City ICE post referencing the arrest of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gang members shows agents detaining a suspect in a parking lot of a strip mall. The storefronts in the background show the arrest location to be in St. George, indicating enforcement activity isn't only focused in the urban area along the Wasatch Front.

The photos from the ICE Salt Lake City X account show the detentions by federal agents of Yoxsuany Raul Cruz Guerra, left, and Benjamin Zavala. (Photo: Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Salt Lake City office)

Another March 21 post cites the arrest by immigration officials of Benjamin Zavala, 46, in Ogden. He was arrested in 2021 in connection with an alleged sex offense at an Ogden barbershop on Jan. 30, 2021, according to 2nd District Court records. He was later convicted of attempted object rape and forcible sexual abuse, second-degree felonies, and imprisoned. The ICE online detainee locater shows he's now being held at an ICE facility in Pahrump, Nevada.

March 21: Jeanne Marie Medel-Garay

A March 20 post cites the arrest and deportation of a woman identified as Jeanne Marie Medel-Garay, 46, who had apparently lived in West Valley City. It doesn't identify her country of origin or other details. "She is a member of the South American Theft Group with prior arrests for theft, fraud, organized theft/card fraud," reads the post.

South American Theft Groups, or SATGs in FBI parlance, are made up of people from South America "who enter the U.S. illegally or overstay their visas, and who commit crimes, including commercial and residential burglaries," according to an FBI report from February. "They frequently use rental vehicles and rely on fake IDs and documents."

A post on Tuesday from ICE's main X account, alluding to the Medel-Garay case, says theft groups "violently swarm retail stores, stealing medications, health and beauty products, designer clothing, power tools and even laundry detergent to sell online at a discount."

March 19: Jose Mariano Viloria Valera

A March 19 post notes the arrest of Jose Mariano Viloria Valera, 21, and his looming deportation. "Viloria is a Tren de Aragua gang member from Venezuela and was convicted of aggravated assault," reads the post. Viloria Valera previously identified Herriman as his home address while the ICE online detainee locater shows he's now being held at an ICE facility in Pahrump, Nevada.

KSL.com has previously reported on Viloria Valera and several others involved in a confrontation on Sept. 22 last year that culminated with shots fired and a car crash outside a Herriman apartment complex. Viloria Valera was convicted of aggravated assault in the incident and, on March 11, received a suspended prison sentence.

Charges against two other people involved have been dismissed, including one who entered the country illegally, according to court papers. Another person was convicted of a misdemeanor count of using a dangerous weapon in a fight and awaits sentencing and cases continue against two others.

March 18: Yoxsuany Raul Cruz Guerra

A March 18 post by the Salt Lake City ICE office said a Cuban man here illegally, Yoxsuany Raul Cruz Guerra, 21, had been detained in West Valley City. He was convicted of unauthorized possession of more than $5,000 of goods, a third-degree felony, in 3rd District Court for his role in the theft of items last October from an American Fork beauty goods store. He was operating with a "traveling organized retail theft crew," charging documents say.

Cruz Guerra received a suspended prison sentence on Feb. 28 and was granted early release "if ICE begins deportation proceedings early," sentencing papers read.

'A nationwide initiative'

Earlier X posts offer more general information about immigration enforcement action — but not the sort of detail of more recent messaging.

The recent U.S. Attorney's Office press releases variously identify nationals from Colombia, Mexico and Honduras — some here illegally — who face drug-related charges stemming from alleged trafficking of fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin in Utah. The more recent statements reference Operation Take Back America, a Trump administration program identified by the Immigration Policy Tracking Project, an initiative managed by law students and Stanford and Yale universities.

Operation Take Back America, reads one of the press releases, is "a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime."

Charging papers use generic language in describing the drug organizations of the traffickers. The paperwork for one suspect, for instance, states that the charges stem from "a criminal investigation into several members of a drug trafficking organization ('DTO') that were believed to be distributing large quantities of narcotics in the district of Utah."

So far in March, the U.S. Attorney's Office has issued six press releases outlining charges against immigrants here illegally and other foreign nationals.

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.