One of the defendants was released into the country under the Biden Administration.
Now he is going to prison for 20 years.
The case involved a 16-year-old orphan trafficked across state lines for commercial sex, and it is the kind of case that should make every American ask the same question: how was this man ever released in the first place?
The Department of Homeland Security announced on June 29, 2026, that two Venezuelan illegal aliens were sentenced after an investigation led by ICE Homeland Security Investigations in San Antonio.
DHS identified the defendants as Giannys Alexandra Ramirez-Fernandez and Nelson Adrian Perez-Martinez, both from Venezuela, and said both were sentenced in the Western District of Texas after a child sex trafficking case.
The agency says the charges included conspiracy to traffic a child and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
DHS also says Perez-Martinez was found guilty of benefitting from sex trafficking of children and aiding and abetting coercion and enticement, putting him at the center of the longer sentence in the case.
Ramirez-Fernandez was sentenced to about 12 and a half years. Perez-Martinez was sentenced to roughly 20 years.
Combined, that is 32 years in federal prison.
Here is the part that puts a face on every release-policy fight of the last four years.
DHS says Perez-Martinez illegally entered the United States in Texas in 2023, was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol, and was then released by the Biden Administration.
DHS says Ramirez-Fernandez entered the country illegally at an unknown date and location.
In its June 29 statement, DHS said one of the convicted defendants had been released by the Biden Administration, and Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis used the case to criticize Biden-era handling of unaccompanied minors, unvetted sponsors, and traffickers.
In plain English: the man who would later be convicted in a child sex trafficking case was caught at the border and let go.
JUSTICE SERVED: TWO illegal aliens sentenced to prison for CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING.
The sentencing comes as a result of an investigation led by @HSI_SanAntonio into Giannys Alexandra Ramirez-Fernandez and Nelson Adrian Perez-Martinez, both from Venezuela. Perez-Martinez was… pic.twitter.com/vYLWPCn6Ok
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 29, 2026
The Department of Justice, Western District of Texas described the sentencing as decades in federal prison for trafficking a child orphan.
The DOJ case summary anchors the numbers behind the DHS update: two separate defendants, two separate prison terms, and a combined 32 years after federal proceedings in San Antonio.
The federal case also shows why the phrase “released into the country” cannot be treated like a harmless bureaucratic detail. DHS says Perez-Martinez was first caught by Border Patrol in Texas in 2023, then released, before later joining the trafficking operation described in court records.
That timeline is the outrage at the center of the story: a border release, a child victim, a federal prosecution, and now a 20-year sentence.
KTSA in San Antonio, summarizing DOJ and court evidence, reported that the victim was a 16-year-old orphan and that the trafficking trail began in Colombia before reaching Richmond, Kentucky, and San Antonio.
The local report said Ramirez-Fernandez was 17 when she began a relationship with the victim, who was then 13 and living with adopted parents in Colombia.
Ramirez-Fernandez and the minor crossed illegally into the United States in December 2022, according to the report. Perez-Martinez crossed illegally in December 2023 and later joined them.
KTSA says the defendants took the victim from Kentucky to San Antonio, where an online commercial-sex advertisement was posted and investigators later traced the operation through multiple motels in the city.
Investigators found the defendants accompanied the minor to about six San Antonio motels between July 19 and July 30, 2024, according to the local report.
An undercover San Antonio police officer responded to an escort-service ad, and arrests followed at a Studio 6 motel on Pasteur Court.
Ramirez-Fernandez pleaded guilty in September 2025, and Perez-Martinez was found guilty by a jury in February 2026.
NEW: Two Venezuelan illegal immigrants have been sentenced for their roles in a child sex trafficking scheme.
Giannys Alexandra Ramirez-Fernandez was sentenced to 12½ years in federal prison, while Nelson Adrian Perez-Martinez received more than 20 years after being convicted on… pic.twitter.com/uXucPexUIo
— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) June 29, 2026
DHS credited HSI San Antonio with leading the investigation, with help from HSI Houston, HSI Seattle, USCIS, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, Border Patrol, the FBI, and state and local partners.
Under President Trump, DHS is framing cases like this as a reminder that vetting, detention, and prosecution are not paperwork issues. They are public-safety issues.
The 16-year-old orphan at the center of this case was failed long before the courtroom.
A federal jury and a federal judge have now delivered the closest thing to justice the system can give her.
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