Deported child predator who illegally reentered US sentenced to 20 years in federal prison

A Mexican national who had been deported from the U.S. multiple times before illegally reentering the country has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for sexually exploiting two minors, according to federal officials.

Erik Santana-Garcia, 34, of Salt Lake City, Utah, was sentenced July 30 to 20 years in federal prison without parole, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for interstate transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity, possession of child pornography and illegally reentering the US following a prior deportation, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri.

He pleaded guilty March 3, according to court documents.

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Santana-Garcia transported a minor across state lines intending to engage in illegal sexual activity with the child, prosecutors said.

He left Utah with the victim on Nov. 10, 2024, and intended to take the child to New York, but Oak Grove, Missouri, police located the pair two days later. Investigators with Homeland Security Investigations later discovered child pornography depicting a second minor on a phone seized from Santana-Garcia at the time of his arrest, prosecutors said.

Santana-Garcia had previously been deported and removed from the U.S. multiple times, most recently on March 6, 2019, according to prosecutors.

"Now, Erik Santana-Garcia’s going to spend the next 20 years in a federal prison because ICE HSI Kansas City, ICE HSI Salt Lake City, ICE HSI Billings and local police from Oak Grove, Missouri, nabbed him," Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote on X.

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ICE said Santana-Garcia will be deported to Mexico after completing his prison sentence.

"This criminal illegal alien should have stayed in his own nation, because under @POTUS Trump, the United States has ZERO tolerance for child predators or illegal aliens who sneak across our borders," the agency said.