CLEVELAND, OHIO — A federal grand jury has indicted Juan Tiul Xi, a 26-year-old Guatemalan national living in the U.S. illegally, on charges of smuggling a 14-year-old girl into the United States and committing fraud to gain custody of her, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced.
According to prosecutors, Tiul Xi induced the minor, also from Guatemala, to cross the border illegally in 2023 and assume the identity of his sister. When the girl arrived at the U.S. border unaccompanied, she was placed in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Tiul Xi later submitted a fraudulent application to sponsor her, falsely claiming she was his sibling. ORR released the girl to him in September 2023, unaware of the deception.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio charged Tiul Xi with three serious offenses:
Encouraging or inducing illegal entry for financial gain (maximum 10 years in prison)
Making a false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement (maximum 5 years in prison)
Aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory consecutive 2-year sentence
Attorney General Pam Bondi pointed to prior border policies as contributing factors in cases like this. “The prior administration’s border policies created an environment that enabled human trafficking and allowed bad actors to take advantage of at-risk children,” she said.
Tiul Xi’s arrest resulted from an investigation led by Joint Task Force Alpha, a collaborative effort between the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. The task force, which Bondi expanded to dismantle transnational smuggling networks, has made over 300 trafficking-related arrests and convictions to date.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons emphasized the agency’s victim-centered approach: “This case is a testament to ICE’s commitment to hold predators accountable for the harm they inflict on children. We are making every effort to ensure the safety of children released to sponsors across the United States.”
Tiul Xi remains in federal custody as he awaits trial.
