Juan Tiul Xi, Human Trafficking and Custody Fraud, Ohio 2023

Guatemalan Man Unlawfully Residing in Cleveland Indicted for Smuggling Unaccompanied Alien Child and Obtaining Custody with False Statements.

A federal grand jury in Cleveland, Ohio, indicted Juan Tiul Xi, 26, a Guatemalan national unlawfully residing in Cleveland, for his alleged role in smuggling an unaccompanied alien child (UAC) to the United States and for allegedly submitting a sponsorship application with false statements to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to gain custody of the minor after she entered the United States.

According to the indictment, Juan Tiul Xi, a Guatemalan national unlawfully residing in Cleveland, illegally entered the United States in 2023. Thereafter, Tiul Xi allegedly encouraged and induced a 14-year-old Guatemalan girl to illegally enter the United States and to use the identity of Tiul Xi’s sister as her alias. As a UAC, the Guatemalan girl was placed in the care and custody of ORR. As alleged, Tiul Xi then falsely stated on documents submitted to ORR when he applied to sponsor and obtain custody of the girl that he was the UAC’s brother and that her alias was her actual name.

On or about September 5, 2023, ORR released the UAC to Tiul Xi’s care after relying on his alleged false statements. Tiul Xi is charged with one count of encouraging or inducing illegal entry for financial gain, one count of making a false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement, and one count of aggravated identity theft. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the illegal entry count, a maximum penalty of five years in prison on the false statement count, and a mandatory consecutive penalty of two years in prison on the aggravated identity theft count.

The indictment is the result of the coordinated efforts of Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security, which has been elevated and expanded by the Attorney General to target cartels and other transnational criminal organizations to eliminate human smuggling and trafficking networks operating in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, and Colombia.

Tiul Xi is a Guatemalan national unlawfully residing in Cleveland, Ohio. He is currently being held without bond and is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on [insert date]. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/guatemalan-man-unlawfully-residing-united-states-and-convicted-sexual-battery-indicted