WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has arrested a 34-year-old Mexican national in Sioux Falls, South Dakota after an undercover sting operation targeting online sexual predators, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
According to DHS, Federico Pascual-Jimenez has been charged with felony enticement of a minor for indecent purposes and illegal re-entry, and is being held on those charges in South Dakota. Pascual-Jimenez is charged, not convicted. In the American justice system, a criminal charge is an allegation, and defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
According to DHS, the arrest resulted from an undercover HSI operation in May 2026 targeting individuals who use the internet to prey on children. An ICE law enforcement officer, posing online as a 14-year-old girl, exchanged text messages with Pascual-Jimenez in which prosecutors say Pascual-Jimenez engaged in sexually explicit conversation, made statements dismissing the significance of the purported minor’s age, and directed the individual to conceal her age and delete evidence of the exchange, the department said. Specific text-message content in the release is not being reproduced here.
On May 27, according to DHS, Pascual-Jimenez arranged to meet the individual he believed to be a 14-year-old girl at the parking lot of a public swimming pool in Sioux Falls. HSI officers were waiting, and he was arrested at the scene without incident, according to the department.
According to DHS, Pascual-Jimenez has a prior criminal conviction for driving under the influence.
Immigration history
According to DHS, Pascual-Jimenez has an extensive record of illegal entries into and deportations from the United States. The department said he first illegally entered the United States through Arizona in 2001 and was granted a voluntary return to Mexico. According to DHS, he later illegally re-entered the country through Texas in April 2012 and again voluntarily departed. He illegally entered twice through California in May 2012 — with the second entry being a federal felony under illegal re-entry statutes — and was deported both times. According to the department, his fifth illegal entry occurred in July 2012, when he entered through Texas and was deported again in August 2012. He then illegally entered the country a sixth time at an unknown date and location, according to DHS.
The current federal charge of illegal re-entry addresses this repeated pattern under federal statute.
Statement from the Assistant Secretary
“This sicko was arrested after repeatedly sending sexual texts to someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl,” Acting Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. “His criminal history includes a conviction for driving under the influence, and he has been deported FIVE times in the past. ICE has lodged a detainer asking officials in South Dakota to commit to not releasing this pedophile from jail and cooperate with ICE, so that we can remove him from our country and make sure he’ll never prey on another innocent child in our country again.”
Resources
If you know a child who is being groomed, exploited, or targeted online, contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children CyberTipline at 1-800-843-5678 or CyberTipline.org. You can also contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov. For emergencies, call 911.
Anyone with information about criminal activity involving immigration violations can report tips to ICE at 1-866-347-2423.
Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security
