Yolanda Ernestina Soto-Antunez, a 41-year-old Honduran national, was found guilty by a Montana federal jury on two counts — unlawfully returning to the United States after deportation and transporting an undocumented Mexican national inside the country. The verdict came after three days of trial proceedings.
A Speeding Stop Uncovers More
On March 6, a Phillips County sheriff’s deputy clocked Soto-Antunez speeding along U.S. Highway 2 near Malta and pulled her over. Border Patrol agents arrived at the scene to help with translation and, in the course of that contact, established that her passenger was a Mexican citizen with no lawful status in the country.
A search turned up $18,000 in cash inside a duffel bag the passenger claimed as his own. He told investigators he was bound for Washington state, where a family member would lend him another $12,000 — the combined $30,000 earmarked to pay for his sister’s illegal entry into the United States. Soto-Antunez was allegedly tasked with ferrying those funds to a smuggling group based in Tijuana, Mexico.
Immigration History
Federal prosecutors also pressed Soto-Antunez’s immigration record. She was removed from the country in June 2012, then slipped back across the border in August 2016 without legal authorization — making her presence in Montana itself a federal offense separate from the smuggling-related charge.
Sentencing Ahead
Soto-Antunez is being held in federal custody while she awaits sentencing before Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris, scheduled for July 9. She could face up to five years in federal prison, a fine as high as $250,000, and a supervised release term of three years.
The investigation was a joint effort involving U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Phillips County Sheriff’s Office.
Rural Montana and Federal Enforcement
The case illustrates the degree to which northern Montana’s remote highway corridors factor into federal immigration and smuggling enforcement. U.S. Highway 2 traces the state’s northern edge and falls within the operational territory of Border Patrol’s Havre sector, an area where local deputies and federal agents frequently work alongside one another.
Under the Trump administration, immigration enforcement efforts — including prosecutions tied to smuggling networks — have expanded. Cases originating from ordinary traffic enforcement, as this one did, highlight how county-level law enforcement in sparsely populated areas can produce federal criminal cases with cross-border dimensions.
