A Mexican national, who had been removed from the United States on multiple occasions before unlawfully re-entering, has been handed a 20-year federal prison sentence for the sexual exploitation of two minors, federal officials have confirmed.
Erik Santana-Garcia, 34, residing in Salt Lake City, Utah, received his sentence on July 30. He was ordered to serve 20 years in federal prison without parole, to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release. The charges for which he was sentenced include interstate transportation of a minor with the intent to engage in illegal sexual activity, possession of child pornography, and illegally re-entering the United States after a prior deportation, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri.
Court documents indicate that Santana-Garcia entered a guilty plea on March 3.
Details of the Offenses and Apprehension
Prosecutors detailed that Santana-Garcia transported a minor across state lines, intending to engage in unlawful sexual acts with the child. He departed Utah with the victim on November 10, 2024, with the stated intention of taking the child to New York. However, police in Oak Grove, Missouri, located the pair two days later. Investigators with Homeland Security Investigations subsequently discovered child pornography depicting a second minor on a phone confiscated from Santana-Garcia at the time of his arrest, prosecutors stated.
Santana-Garcia had been deported and removed from the U.S. multiple times before this incident, with his most recent removal occurring on March 6, 2019, according to prosecutors.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) commented on the outcome of the case, stating,
"Now, Erik Santana-Garcia’s going to spend the next 20 years in a federal prison because ICE HSI Kansas City, ICE HSI Salt Lake City, ICE HSI Billings and local police from Oak Grove, Missouri, nabbed him."
ICE also confirmed that Santana-Garcia is slated for deportation to Mexico upon the completion of his prison sentence.
The agency further issued a strong statement, asserting,
"This criminal illegal alien should have stayed in his own nation, because under @POTUS Trump, the United States has ZERO tolerance for child predators or illegal aliens who sneak across our borders."