A San Juan couple accused of harboring 50 people at a Pharr hotel and another 45 in a residence and a U-haul in San Juan have pleaded guilty.
Isaac Livan Martinez, 23, and Gina Alexandria Guzman, 26, pleaded guilty this week to a single count of harboring people in the country illegally.
Guzman and Martinez were indicted on July 27 and faced three counts of harboring, court records show.
Federal authorities first arrested Martinez on June 28 after a traffic stop in San Juan where police there and Border Patrol encountered him with a large amount of food, according to the complaint. That complaint also states that he admitted to authorities he was harboring around 30 people at his residence there.
Authorities report in the complaint that a search of that residence and a U-Haul on the property revealed 45 people in the country illegally.
That investigation led to Guzman.
She was arrested on July 2, records show.
A complaint for her arrest reads much the same as the complaint for Martinez aside from a few modifications, including that she acted as a lookout at the Krystal Hotel in Pharr while Martinez smuggled people into hotel rooms.
That document also says she gave instructions to the people in the country illegally and received a “monetary allowance” from Martinez for doing so.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas says in a news release that authorities had arrived at that location on May 13 for an unrelated investigation.
“However, hotel staff informed them that they suspected several non-citizens were being housed in various hotel rooms,” the release stated.
Law enforcement found 50 people, including unaccompanied minors, who were not legally in the country at the hotel.
“Authorities later reviewed hotel surveillance footage and observed Martinez and Guzman picking up and dropping off the non-citizens at the hotel in a stolen U-Haul truck,” the release stated.
They are scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 30 and face up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.
They have remained in custody since their arrests.
