Los Fresnos bakery owners arrested for harboring migrants illegally in US

The owners of Abby’s Bakery in Los Fresnos have been charged with bringing in and harboring people illegally present in the U.S. and abetting the harboring, according to a criminal complaint.

Leonardo Baez and Nora Alicia Avila-Guel were charged after it was discovered they were harboring eight people illegally present in the country.

On Feb. 12, Homeland Security Investigations encountered the two at their bakery where they found the eight individuals.

According to the complaint, both Baez and Avila-Guel admitted to knowing the individuals were unlawfully present in the country and allowed them to stay on their own personal property.

Two of the individuals identified Baez and Avila-Guel as the owners of Abby’s Bakery and the people who harbored them and the others.

“The apprehension of the [individuals] was the result of a worksite enforcement action,” the complaint said. “Post event, the facts of the event were presented to the duty of AUSA, who agreed there was sufficient cause for a complaint for harboring and accepted prosecution.”

Both Baez and Avila-Guel are scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Betancourt on Friday morning for their preliminary examination and detention hearing.

The arrests come during a time when President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott have doubled down on hardline immigration policies and a social media campaign blitz from the White House, highlighting mass deportations and going so far as to write a Valentine’s Day poem threatening to deport people illegally in the country.

Recently, U.S. Border Patrol deputized around 300 Texas Army National Guardsmen to aid the agency in making immigration arrests or detainments.

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