Federal prosecutors in the District of Arizona announced Tuesday that they filed criminal charges against 271 individuals in connection with immigration-related offenses stemming from enforcement operations conducted May 30–June 5.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the filings include:
- 137 cases charging aliens with illegal re-entry;
- 113 cases charging individuals with illegal entry;
- 16 cases (against 20 people) related to alien smuggling; and
- one charge for assaulting a federal officer.
The office said the matters were referred to or supported by multiple federal and local partners, including ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE-ERO), ICE Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), U.S. Border Patrol, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and the ATF.
The release highlighted two recent matters of interest. Marie Rosa Vavages was charged June 1 with transportation of illegal aliens with conduct that placed lives in jeopardy after an incident on May 31 in which a vehicle failed to yield to Tohono O’odham Police, left the roadway and rolled; two rear-seat occupants — later identified as Guatemalan citizens determined to be unlawfully present — were removed from the vehicle by Border Patrol.
Another defendant, Kiiza Donald Atuhairwe, was charged May 30 with assault on a federal officer. The release notes Atuhairwe was previously ordered removed by an immigration judge on May 6, 2025; the alleged assault occurred in late May 2026, the statement said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not provide additional details on many of the filings or on the status of individual defendants. As with all defendants, those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Court dates and further case information were not included in the release.
