Will Trump administration ICE cockfighters? ICE busts two in first 100 days

Push to deport illegal alien criminals so far appears to bust cockfighters mostly by accident

MEMPHIS,  Tennessee––Has the Donald Trump administration push to deport Latin American illegal alien criminals stimulated federal law enforcement interest in busting cockfights?

An investigation by U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement [ICE],  a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,  in April 2025 contributed to cockfighting charges against two suspects in Memphis,  Tennessee.

But whether cockfighting was targeted in hopes the raids might nab illegal alien criminals,  or catching alleged cockfighters was an unanticipated byproduct of hunts for illegal aliens appears to be at best a “Which came first,  the chicken or the egg?” proposition.

(See What will deportations do to cockfighting, charreada, & outlaw horse racing? and Trump administration plan to fight H5N1 ignores cockfighting.)

States may be busting more cockfighters,  but feds are not

Conspicuous is that the cockfighting busts led by ICE were not announced by the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service,  the agency that usually takes the lead in enforcing the anti-animal fighting provisions of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Also of note is that federal cockfighting busts are so far not more frequent in 2025 than in 2023 and 2024,  under the Joe Biden administration;  that the 2025 busts,  unlike the federal cockfighting busts in 2023 and 2024,   have so far hit two possible ringleaders,  but not large numbers of alleged participants;  and that while the federal busts in 2023 and 2024 brought multiple convictions of Anglo cockfighters in Appalachian,  Southern,  and Midwestern “red” states,  those in 2025 have nabbed only two suspects,  both of them Spanish speakers.

In addition,  the two alleged perpetrators caught by ICE are so far charged only with violating the relatively weak Tennessee state and local laws against animal fighting,  rather than with violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

But ICE did bust couple in Memphis

Be all that as it may,  agents from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security on April 9,  2025 did recognize an alleged cockfighting operation in the Berclair district of Memphis,  Tennessee,  calling other law enforcement agencies to the scene to help gather evidence.

“Authorities arrested the only adult at the home,  33-year-old Perla Griselda Hernandez,”  reported Fox 13 News in Memphis.

Hernandez “faces 53 total charges,  including 47 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals,  two counts of cockfighting, and four counts of cruelty to animals,”  Fox 13 staff learned.

Similar charges were brought on April 27,  2025 against Jose Naranjo,  also 33.

“According to the affidavit,”  Fox 13 News updated,  “Jose Naranjo was charged with 47 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals,  a class E felony,  as well as four counts of cruelty to animals and two counts of cock fighting,  all class A misdemeanors.

“Discovered backyard cockfighting operation”

“Court documents show that the Department of Homeland Security [agents] said they were serving a warrant at a home in Berclair when they discovered the cockfighting operation in the backyard,”  Fox 13 News continued.

“When [Memphis] animal control officers arrived to search the premises,  they found 45 chickens and roosters,  as well as vitamins,  steroids,  wound cleaners,  and antibiotics, along with spur protectors and rooster leg weights,  court records show.

“Authorities said that they discovered a dead rooster in a cage,  as well as two rooster or chicken skeletons and a ‘rooster glove,’ which is a device used to train roosters to fight other roosters,”  Fox 13 News finished.

The earlier Fox 13 News report mentioned that according to an animal control spokesperson,  “Some of the roosters were tethered while others were in cages.  Most did not have shelters, according to court records.

“The animal control officer said that the beaks on two roosters had been filed down and three of the roosters had their crowns taken off,  indicative of cockfighting.”

Armed robbery investigation led to Phoenix bust

A single charge of cockfighting,  a Class 5 Arizona felony,  brought by the Maricopa County district attorney’s office on April 22,  2025 against Victor Manuel Espinoza,  60,  of Phoenix,  Arizona,  also came as result of an unrelated investigation.

Reported David Baker and Zach Prelutsky for AZFamily on April 25,  2025,  “Glendale police said an armed robbery investigation led them to the Espinoza home,”  where they “found evidence of cockfighting,  including a ledger of names of people who participated in the fights,  sharp knives with curved blades [cockfighting gaffs],  three dead chickens,  and a 2024 cockfighting trophy.

“Espinoza also owns properties across the street,”  Baker and Prelutsky continued,  where police “found 65 roosters in cages and six dead ones,  court paperwork said.  Several were groomed to be ready for fighting,  and several others were injured due to fighting,  police said.

Espinoza “was on probation when arrested,”  Baker and Prelutsky mentioned,  but did not mention his previous offenses.

Guilty plea,  finally,  in 2022 case

In Providence,  Rhode Island,  meanwhile,  Onill Vazquez Lozada,  39,  on April 22,  2025 pleaded guilty to “two counts of possessing, sponsoring, and exhibiting birds in an animal fighting venture in violation of the Animal Welfare Act,”  reported Cate Hanewich of WLNE.

“In court,  Lozada admitted he ‘possessed roosters for the purpose of having them fight’ on April 27, 2021,”  Hanewich summarized,  “as well as having ‘sponsored and exhibited,  and aided and abetted sponsoring and exhibiting,  at least one rooster in a fight against another rooster” on March 6, 2022.

“U.S. District Court Judge Melissa DuBose accepted Lozada’s plea.  He will be sentenced after the judge receives and reviews a sentencing report,”  Hanewich said,  adding “Lozada faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for each charge.”

Lozada was arrested at the 2022 cockfight along with alleged cockfighting derby host Miguel Delgado,  73,  of Providence,  along with fellow Rhode Island resident Antonio Ledee Rivera and Massachusetts residents Gerdimez Kingsley Jamie,  31,  Jose Rivera,  67,  and Luis Castillo, 35.

Chiapas,  Mexico,  lifts cockfighting suspension

The U.S. law enforcement activity against cockfighting came parallel to the Mexican state of Chiapas reauthorizing legal cockfighting through June 30,  2025,  after having suspended both cockfighting and horse racing in January 2025,  reportedly under lobbying pressure from Sistema Nacional de Criadores de Aves de Combate (National System of Fighting Bird Breeders),  lobbying for gamefowl breeders since 1973.

Cockfighting is protected as a “cultural heritage” activity in the Mexican states of Zacatecas,  Aguascalientes,  Tlaxcala, Nayarit,  and Hidalgo,  according to Tim Alper of Casino Beats,  a periodical covering the gambling industry.

“Other Mexican states have moved to ban cockfighting in recent years.  Sonora,  Coahuila, and Mexico City outlawed the bloodsport in 2012,”  wrote Alper.  “Veracruz followed with its own ban,  which the Mexican Supreme Court upheld in 2018.”

12 killed at Ecuadoran cockfight

Ecuadoran police on April 19,  2024 told media they “have arrested four people in connection with an attack by gunmen at a cockfighting ring in which 12 people died,”  reported BBC News correspondent Jaroslav Lukiv.

Nine other people were wounded in the 11:30 p.m. attack.

“Weapons and replica police and army uniforms were seized during police raids in the north-western Manabí province a day after the attack in the rural community of La Valencia,”  Lukiv said.

Video shared on social media by apparent cockfighting spectators showed the gunmen arriving and opening fire,  as some attendees dived for cover,  others merely sat still and watched,  and roosters scattered.

“Reports in local media,”  Lukiv narrated,  “suggested the attackers in fake military gear were members of a criminal gang whose rivals were at the cockfight.

The raiders reportedly arrived in three different vehicles,  and escaped with $20,000 in gambling money.

Peruvian cockfighters menace sawfish

In Peru,  the next nation south of Ecuador,  Sierra Garcia on March 25,  2025 extensively exposed for Mongabay.org how “cockfighters have long brought their roosters to fight wearing sharp spurs fashioned from the ‘teeth’ of sawfish,  contributing to driving the largetooth sawfish Pristis pristis toward extinction.

“Advocates for the species have increasingly realized that cockfighting plays a role in preventing or hastening its demise in Peru,  and are working to eliminate sawfish spurs from the sport,”  wrote Garcia.

“Experts worry that demand for sawfish spurs could drive more sawfish killings than the species can support.”

More than half bought sawfish spurs

Mariano Cabanillas-Torpoco,  identified by Garcia as “a research fellow at Brazil’s Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation,  told Garcia that in 2016-2017 he “led an international team of scientists and conservationists in surveying hundreds of fishers and dozens of cockfighters to learn more about where sawfish once lived and how captured sawfish in Peru and Ecuador are used.

“Of the 49 Peruvian cockfighters who agreed to be interviewed,  more than half had purchased sawfish-tooth spurs at least once in the preceding five years,”  Garcia recounted.

Victor Negrete,  identified by Garcia as “president of the Lima-based Worldwide Gamefowl Breeders Association and a proponent of eradicating sawfish-tooth spurs from the bloody sport,”  told Garcia that “cockfighters who still sell and buy sawfish-tooth spurs are now the minority.”

“Cockfighters are encouraging sawfish conservation”

Responded Cabanillas-Torpoco, “They see it as an opportunity to promote the sport,  by saying ‘Cockfighters are encouraging sawfish conservation.’”

Explained Garcia,  “A largetooth sawfish might have up to two dozen pairs of sharp teeth protruding from its rostrum,  and each tooth might make up to four sets of spurs.  The total payout adds up to thousands of dollars — the equivalent of what many artisanal fishers make in the better part of a year.

“In early 2020,”  Garcia finished,  “ the Peruvian Ministry of Production banned the capture, transport and sale of any sawfish body parts within the country.  Advocates say the next step for saving sawfish must include better training for enforcers to detect and recognize the sawfish teeth after they’ve been shaped and polished into cockfighting spurs.”

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