CBP commander arrested for harboring his undocumented migrant girlfriend
Andres Wilkinson, a 25-year border protection veteran, was "aware of her unlawful immigration status yet maintained a romantic relationship with her,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
The arrest of a CBP officer for failing to turn in his undocumented migrant girlfriend has sparked outrage, with comparisons to Nazi Germany’s Gestapo secret police.
Customs and Border Protection supervisor Andres Wilkinson of Laredo, Texas, used his position in border enforcement to help shield the woman, including traveling with her through Border Patrol checkpoints near the southern border, according to a criminal complaint filed earlier this month.
The couple was secretly observed for months by his own agency, and Wilkinson could now face up to a decade behind bars for not selling out his partner to authorities.
The criminal complaint against Wilkinson, as reported by CBS News, described how the woman first entered the US on a temporary visa in August 2023 and overstayed. According to the complaint, her husband – who was not Wilkinson – filed a green card application on her behalf in January 2024, but canceled the petition in April 2025.
A few weeks later, the CBP Office of Professional Responsibility observed the woman and her daughter with Wilkinson, which sparked a secretive months-long investigation into their relationship.
Over that period, Wilkinson was "aware of her unlawful immigration status yet maintained a romantic relationship with her,” the Justice Department said in a statement, and provided her with "financial support, including housing, credit cards, assistance with financial obligations and access to [a] vehicle registered in his name.”
Further complicating the situation, CBS News reported that investigators discovered the woman also appeared to be Wilkinson’s niece; records showed she was the daughter of a man named J. Santos Garcia-Moreno, whom Wilkinson had listed as his brother in a 2023 background check.
When the woman was detained this month, she admitted she had been living with Wilkinson since August 2024.
Wilkinson had served with CBP since 2001, the Justice Department said, and in 2021 was promoted to a supervisory position where his duties included “overseeing the enforcement of customs and immigration laws.”
The 52-year-old’s arrest was touted in a press release from U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei as another win for President Trump’s tough immigration crackdown.
“This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime,” the statement said.
While the Trump administration’s hardline stance has often been touted as addressing violent crime, a new internal Department of Homeland Security analysis obtained by CBS News last week found that less than 14 percent of immigrants arrested over the first year of Trump’s second presidency had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses.
Earlier analysis by the University of California, Berkeley’s Deportation Data Project in December revealed that more than one-third of those arrested had no criminal history, and the broad dragnet has sparked widespread national protests.
The Justice Department said if Wilkinson was convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison and a possible $250,000 fine.
He was remanded in custody at an initial court appearance pending a detention hearing scheduled for Friday; the outcome of that hearing was not immediately available.
The case will be prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Manuel Cardenas.
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