Former ICE contractor sentenced to 21 months in prison for smuggling migrants

McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractor who smuggled busloads of migrants through a Border Patrol checkpoint was sentenced to 21 months in prison Wednesday.

Nancy Fernandez Luna, 36, of Pharr worked for MVM Inc., which transported migrants for ICE and the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement.

In 2024, however, Fernandez began smuggling busloads of migrants with no legal status in the United States through the Border Patrol checkpoint near Falfurrias.

To avoid suspicion, Fernandez forged documents and flashed her government ID. Her boyfriend, Juan Torres Ayala, drove the bus.

“She’s not the key player in this case,” said attorney Victoria Guerra of McAllen, who represented Fernandez. “He is.”

Fernandez was born and raised in Reynosa, according to an 116-page statement her lawyers filed with the court in February.

When she was 17 years old, Fernandez moved to Pharr with her mother.

Fernandez attended PSJA North High School, according to her statement, and graduated from the University of Texas-Pan American with a degree in criminal justice.

In 2017, she accepted a job with MVM.

“It is a company that transported minors and later families from U.S. Border Patrol holding facilities all over the United States to private shelters or to foster homes,” Fernandez wrote in her statement. “My title was Transport Specialist.”

Fernandez worked 55 to 70 hours a week, flying or driving migrants to shelters in other states.

“The job was very exhausting and there was a big turnover rate because people could not keep up the pace,” Fernandez wrote in her statement. “I always carried three or four changes of clothes because sometimes I would not even get to go home because I would have another trip waiting when I landed. I would sometimes do three or four trips at once.”

To pass through Border Patrol checkpoints, MVM employees would present agents with a “Personal Identity Verification” card issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In 2021 or 2022, according to her statement, Fernandez met Juan Torres Ayala, a bus driver from Mission. Torres worked for a company that provided buses to MVM.

“Juan and I started spending time together because sometimes we would have to wait up to five hours on the bus,” Fernandez wrote in her statement.

Torres flirted with her. At first, Fernandez wasn’t interested.

“Little by little Juan started wearing me down,” Fernandez wrote in her statement. “He showered me with attention, gifts and invitations out to eat.”

Torres also spent time with her son and developed a relationship with her mother.

“I let Juan come into my life and get to know me really well. I was transparent with him like an open book,” Fernandez wrote in her statement. “He knew that one of my dreams had been to have a happy marriage and family because I knew what it was like to come from a broken home.”

They began dating in December 2022.

Torres, though, had a dark side. He was jealous and frequently went through her phone. When they argued, he became violent.

“I thought if he loves me like he says why does he want to hurt me,” Fernandez wrote in her statement. “Juan always managed to convince me and make me feel that I was wrong and guilty.”

Torres told Fernandez that members of his family had been kidnapped and murdered in Mexico. He also bragged about smuggling drugs and providing information to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

“The government paid Juan for the information,” Fernandez wrote in her statement, “but Juan also made illegal deals and earned extra money.”

It’s unclear whether Torres actually worked for the government or just made up a story to manipulate Fernandez.

“I did not believe Juan,” Fernandez wrote in her statement, “but one day he showed me a pink colored check stub for $8,000 where he was paid for a job he did for the government.”

Torres provided Fernandez with money, and she accepted fewer assignments from MVM.

In November 2023, she noticed Torres started getting strange phone calls.

“Juan told me that he met people, and they were threatening him,” Fernandez wrote in her statement. “I asked Juan who these people were. Juan told me he did not want to get me into trouble.”

Fernandez didn’t remain in the dark for long. Less than two months later, Torres claimed “they” knew she worked for MVM.

“He told me that those people knew who I was, what I did for work and that I had a child,” Fernandez wrote in her statement. “Juan told me to help him because these people did not mess around.”

What, exactly, Torres wanted became clear in 2024.

“Juan gave me the instructions to create a manifest,” Fernandez wrote in her statement, “and bring my badge with me to cross through the checkpoint.”

They chartered a bus, picked up migrants without legal status in the United States and headed north.

“Juan and I may have done around 10 trips,” Fernandez wrote in her statement.

According to Fernandez, they smuggled 7 to 16 migrants on every trip.

“I know this because most of the people would go and sit in the back of the bus and they filled the last three to four rows of back seats,” Fernandez wrote in her statement. “As I mentioned before, the manifest I used listed 20 people regardless of how many people we were actually transporting.”

Fernandez brought her fake manifest and government ID, according to her statement, but Border Patrol just waived the bus through without checking the documents.

Border Patrol caught Torres and Fernandez in Oct. 4, 2024.

Torres and Fernandez had picked up 39 migrants, according to documents filed in the case against them, and started driving north on U.S. 281.

When they reached the checkpoint, Fernandez showed a Border Patrol agent her government ID.

It didn’t work. The agent sent them to secondary inspection.

When they stopped, Fernandez attempted to bluff her way through.

“Sir this is MVM,” Fernandez said, according to her statement. “We are transporting minors.”
Agents requested the manifest.

“I did not get to show the manifest to the agent who asked me for it,” Fernandez wrote in her statement, because when the agents stepped off the bus “Juan closed the door behind them and drove off.”

Border Patrol stopped the bus, detained Fernandez and forced Torres to drive back.

They’d been caught.

“When I was taken to the La Villa Detention Center it seemed like everyone knew who I was,” Fernandez wrote in her statement. “I heard the guards say, ‘She is the one with ICE. She is the one with ICE.’ Even the inmates knew that I worked for ICE.”

Fernandez and Torres pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport illegal aliens within the United States.

A judge sentenced Torres to 16 months in federal prison. Fernandez returned to court Wednesday for sentencing wearing black pants, a black shirt, and black eyeglasses.

Guidelines published by the U.S. Sentencing Commission recommended 37 to 46 months in prison. Her attorneys suggested U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton place Fernandez on probation or house arrest instead.

“Sending her to prison, we feel, is not going to help,” Guerra said.

Attorney Joseph A. Connors III of McAllen, who also represented Fernandez, prepared a laundry list of objections.

A report prepared by the U.S. Probation Office said the conspiracy involved an unaccompanied minor, Connors said, which could result in a longer prison sentence.

“They have no evidence to support that,” Connors said, adding that federal agents didn’t ask every adult whether they had some kind of family relationship with the minor.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Devin V. Walker, who prosecuted the case, said the minor was the only person from that part of Guatemala on the bus in October 2024.

Tipton overruled the objection.

Connors also claimed that Fernandez wasn’t paid for her participation in the conspiracy.

“She didn’t get a dime,” Connors said. “She got threatened.”

Fernandez had pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge, so whether she received money wasn’t a significant factor at sentencing.

Tipton overruled the objection.

Connors moved on, arguing that Fernandez deserved a role adjustment because Torres played a bigger part in the conspiracy.

Walker, the federal prosecutor, said Fernandez and Torres had provided conflicting information, so the government deemed them both average participants.

They both played important parts in the conspiracy, Walker said. Fernandez provided the fake manifests and her government ID. Torres did the driving.

Tipton overruled the objection.

Connors still had more than 40 other objections, which addressed statements Torres made to federal agents.

Several involved minor issues, including whether Fernandez had asked Torres to drive the bus. None had any impact on the sentencing guidelines.

“If you want to go through them, we can certainly go through them,” Tipton said.

After a break, Connors and Guerra abandoned most of the objections and started arguing Fernandez was a victim of “emotional blackmail.”

Fernandez suffered from “emotional neglect” during childhood, Guerra said, and succumbed to “learned helplessness” during her relationship with Torres.

Guerra and Connors also requested that Tipton read a list of 11 reasons why Fernandez participated in illegal activity and a list of 24 reasons why she didn’t break up with Torres.

The lists included statements like: “I wanted to feel the support of a man and have him give me my rightful place as a woman and be loved as a woman” and: “I was afraid to lose Juan.”

After more than an hour of argument, Fernandez finally had a chance to speak.

“I just ask you for leniency,” Fernandez said. “For my son and my family.”

Tipton sentenced her to 21 months in prison, significantly less than the guidelines recommended, followed by two years on supervised release.