City employee charged with immigrant smuggling

Jose Luis Espericueta, facilities supervisor for the Brownsville Urban System, was arrested Dec. 14 at the U.S. Border Patrol Checkpoint in Falfurrias on charges of transporting undocumented immigrants.

Espericueta, 54, was charged with one count of bringing in and harboring aliens, according to federal court documents. Sergio Andrade-Morales told Border Patrol agents he was a U.S. citizen while he was a passenger in Espericueta’s Lincoln Town Car, court documents show.

In secondary inspection, Andrade-Morales showed the agents a Texas driver’s license, which was determined not to be his. He then admitted he was from Mexico. Micelsy Yolanda Perez-Mendoza was a backseat passenger in Espericueta’s Lincoln; she claimed to be a U.S. citizen and then admitted she was from Honduras.

Espericueta told Border Patrol agents that he contacted his ex-wife in Mexico to ask her if he could borrow money for hospital expenses. He told agents that “she offered to pay him $1,500 to transport two individuals to Houston,” court documents show.

He appeared Monday before U.S. Magistrate Brian L. Owsley Monday in Corpus Christi, and requested a federal public defender, court documents show.

Espericueta appeared a second time before Owsley on Thursday.

City Manager Charlie Cabler said he became aware of Espericeuta’s arrest Thursday.

“He failed to show up to work Monday, up to today,” he said Friday. “Family members said he was in Mexico some where. We started checking files.”

Cabler said he would recommend termination after Espericueta failed to report to work and failed to notify his supervisors of his arrest.

Espericueta’s federal public defender, Jose I. Gonzalez-Falla, could not be reached for comment.

A criminal background check yielded a 1998 federal case of conspiracy to transport certain aliens within the United States.

A search of public records shows that Espericueta, a former federal agent, was arrested in July 1998 at the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Sarita with 15 undocumented immigrants in his Ford Explorer.

He eventually pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and six counts of transporting undocumented immigrants, court documents show.

U.S. District Judge Hilda Tagle sentenced him to 37 months in prison for his role in the harboring and transportation of undocumented immigrants. Prison time was to be followed by three years of supervised release, court documents show.

“He was a deportation officer in Harlingen until his removal from his position after being arrested for alien smuggling in 1998,” court documents show.

Cabler said Espericueta was hired by the city on Oct. 9, 1997, and that when he became assistant city manager in 2002 he knew Espericueta worked for BUS.

He said he did not know that Espericueta was a convicted felon. It was unclear Friday afternoon if Espericueta remained employed with the city during his 37-month prison term or if he resigned and was hired again upon his release.

It was unknown Friday night where he was being detained pending a Dec. 28 hearing.