AISD maintenance worker smuggled 500 immigrants through Austin

By Andy Jechow
Published: September 29, 2016, 5:11 pm
Updated: September 29, 2016, 5:50 pm


A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent and K-9 security dog keep watch at a checkpoint station, on Feb. 22, 2013, in Falfurrias, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

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AUSTIN (KXAN) — A former Austin Independent School District maintenance worker and his wife who smuggled more than 500 undocumented immigrants into the United States from Mexico were sentenced to several years in prison, Thursday.

San Juana Valdez Menchaca, 54, was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison. Her husband, 57-year-old Julian Perez Perez, the former AISD employee, was sentenced to 33 months. The couple pleaded guilty on July 7, 2016 to one count of conspiracy to transport undocumented aliens.

According to AISD records, Perez was employed with the district for around 20 years.

The Department of Justice says the couple’s scheme, which lasted for 10 years, ended in their arrest on April 26, 2016. The scheme involved co-conspirators from Mexico, the Justice Department said. They typically crossed the immigrants near Laredo and brought them to the Austin area, before they reached their final destinations in Alabama, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida.




Family members of the immigrants would go to banks and deposit human smuggling payments directly into funnel accounts controlled by the defendants.

The couple were ordered to pay $1.173 million, or the amount they obtained through the smuggling scheme. Perez and Valdez Menchaca have also been ordered to pay $10,000 in fines. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks also ordered the couple to forfeit their Cedar Creek, Texas home, $106,390 in cash seized on the day of their arrest and around $71,000 in 10 bank accounts.

Valdez Menchaca, who initially told the court she was indigent, was ordered to pay for a $2,709 assessment. They will be placed on supervised release for three years after completing their prison terms. While Valdez-Menchaca has been in custody since her arrest, Perez is currently on bond.

The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations agents and the Austin Police Department.

http://kxan.com/2016/09/29/aisd-main...00-immigrants/