KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 34-year-old illegal immigrant who had been deported from the United States on multiple occasions was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison without parole for sexually exploiting two minor victims and illegally reentering the country, the Department of Justice announced.
U.S. District Judge Greg Kays imposed the sentence on Erik Santana-Garcia of Salt Lake City, Utah, who pleaded guilty on March 3, 2026, to interstate transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity, possession of child pornography, and illegal reentry following a prior deportation. The sentence includes a lifetime of supervised release.
According to court documents, Santana-Garcia left Utah with the first minor victim on Nov. 10, 2024, intending to transport the child to New York. Officers with the Oak Grove, Missouri, Police Department located Santana-Garcia and the victim in Missouri two days later, on Nov. 12, 2024. Investigators with Homeland Security Investigations subsequently found child pornography depicting a second minor victim on a phone seized from Santana-Garcia at the time of his arrest.
Santana-Garcia had been previously deported and removed from the United States on multiple occasions, most recently on March 6, 2019. His illegal reentry — a federal felony under 8 U.S.C. § 1326 — formed one of the three charges to which he pleaded guilty.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Dunning and investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Oak Grove Police Department. It was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse, and as part of Operation Take Back America, the DOJ’s initiative to combat illegal immigration and transnational criminal activity.