ICE contract employee charged with smuggling people on charter bus

A United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract employee was arrested for allegedly transporting 39 people illegally present in the country utilizing an All Valley Charters bus Friday, according to a criminal complaint.

Nancy Fernandez Luna, born in 1989, and the driver, Juan Torres Ayala, of Mexico, who was born in 1982, are both charged with transporting individuals illegally present in the U.S. from McAllen to Falfurrias.

On Friday, a white Prevost bus registered to All Valley Charters, LLC., entered the Falfurrias checkpoint where Fernandez told Border Patrol agents she was a government contract employee for MVM, a government contract transport company, the complaint said.

At the primary inspection area, Fernandez stated she works with ICE and that she escorts undocumented people northbound and provided her ICE personal identification verification contracting card as proof of her authority, according to the complaint.

During a secondary inspection, Fernandez advised that she was transporting juveniles who were all COVID positive and then, as agents were contacting the Centralized Processing Center regarding the validity of the bus, the bus departed.

“Agents conducted a traffic stop on the bus and instructed it to return to secondary inspection,” the complaint said.

Agents then requested the manifest and found inconsistencies such as not all the occupants of the bus being juveniles.

The Central Processing Center then advised the agents that they had no transport buses currently operating.

During an interview with authorities, Torres stated he knew all 39 individuals were illegally present in the country and were being transported illegally. He added he was going to be paid $1,800 for the trip, had picked up the bus rental and knew that the manifest Fernandez produced was fraudulent.

Two of the individuals being transported told authorities that they were provided with gray hoodies and medical masks to wear when they approached the Falfurrias checkpoint. The two stated that Fernandez told them to act asleep.

Both Fernandez and Torres were scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nadia S. Medrano in McAllen federal court for their preliminary examinations and detention hearing Tuesday morning.