DOJ: N.Y. Woman Busted for Running Illegal Alien Pipeline From Canada

A New York state woman was an active cog in a dangerous human-smuggling pipeline pumping illegal aliens across the northern border — and now she's finally facing the consequences, the Department of Justice announced Friday. 

Stacey Taylor, 42, of Plattsburgh, was arraigned this week on charges that she helped run an organized illegal-alien trafficking route from Canada into the United States, a route that prosecutors say put American communities at risk while she profited.

U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped Taylor's vehicle near Churubusco, New York, on Jan. 20.

Inside, agents found four illegal aliens — "three Indian nationals and one Canadian national" — who "had just crossed the U.S.-Canadian border illegally, without inspection, in the freezing cold," according to the DOJ.

Agents say Taylor wasn't some unlucky driver caught in the wrong place at the wrong time — her cellphone messages exposed her as a repeat offender who had "been involved in multiple other smuggling ventures in the days prior," according to the DOJ.

Federal authorities say she was also intercepted in August in yet another suspected smuggling run and "was implicated in alien smuggling as recently as September 2025."

The indictment charges Taylor with conspiracy and four counts of alien smuggling for profit, including three repeat offenses.

If convicted, she faces a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison per count of alien smuggling for profit, meaning she could spend decades in federal prison.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti and U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III announced the case, stressing that Taylor's repeated smuggling attempts are exactly the type of threat Operation Take Back America intends to crush.

Homeland Security Investigations, CBP, and the U.S. Border Patrol Champlain Station worked the case with support from elite DHS and CBP interdiction teams.

The bust is part of the relentless work of Joint Task Force Alpha, a multi-agency strike force elevated specifically "to eliminate human smuggling and trafficking networks operating within the Americas."

JTFA's results demonstrate its impact: more than 425 arrests, more than 375 U.S. convictions, and hundreds of major jail sentences for smugglers and cartel-linked traffickers.

Officials say Taylor's case fits squarely into the mission of Operation Take Back America — a nationwide federal drive to "repel the invasion of illegal immigration," destroy transnational criminal networks, and defend American sovereignty from those who profit off illegal aliens.

The initiative aligns DOJ, DHS, FBI, DEA, and U.S. Attorneys' Offices behind the most aggressive anti-smuggling enforcement campaign in modern history.