JACKSONVILLE - A 41-year-old Jacksonville woman has pleaded guilty to assaulting federal immigration officers and Florida Highway Patrol troopers who were conducting an enforcement operation, punching one trooper in the face and kicking an ICE officer and a Customs and Border Protection agent before being subdued by a Taser.
Jennifer Susan Cruz faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison, U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announced. A sentencing date has not yet been set. Cruz pleaded guilty to assaulting officers conducting an immigration operation.
According to court documents, federal immigration officers assisted by FHP were conducting an operation in Jacksonville on Jan. 13 to locate and arrest illegal aliens. Cruz drove past the scene while recording on her cellphone as a trooper was pulling over a vehicle for a traffic infraction. She parked nearby and began yelling at the trooper. Immigration officers subsequently determined that the two occupants of the stopped vehicle were illegally present in the United States.
When a second trooper approached Cruz about her unlawful cellphone use while driving, she became argumentative and made inflammatory statements, asking whether the trooper supported the “Nazis” — which she clarified as referring to ICE — and asking him not to shoot her in the face. The trooper advised Cruz that ICE officers were present in an official capacity and that his concern was solely her unsafe and unlawful use of a cellphone while operating a motor vehicle.
The trooper asked for Cruz’s driver license. She did not have it but showed a photograph on her cellphone. A records check revealed her license had been suspended as of June 17, 2025. Because she was not legally authorized to operate the vehicle, the trooper requested a tow truck. Cruz then drove away. Multiple troopers activated their emergency lights and sirens and maneuvered patrol vehicles to box in her car.
After the vehicle was stopped, the trooper told Cruz the traffic stop had not been concluded and ordered her to exit and surrender her keys. Cruz exited but became verbally hostile, repeatedly refusing to hand over the keys. She stated she was “ready to go” and, when asked what she meant, said she was ready to fight. When a trooper attempted to retrieve the keys, Cruz struck the trooper in the face with a closed fist. Multiple officers converged to arrest her, but Cruz resisted arrest, including by attempting to strike and kick the officers. As officers carried her toward an FHP patrol vehicle, she kicked at an ICE officer, a CBP agent, and the trooper who had conducted the traffic stop, striking the CBP agent and the ICE officer, whose left hand was injured. The trooper deployed his Taser, which did not subdue her. Officers eventually secured Cruz in the patrol vehicle, but she continued kicking at the windows, roof and in-car camera.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, and the Florida Highway Patrol. Assistant United States Attorney Arnold B. Corsmeier is prosecuting the case. Cruz’s sentencing will be scheduled by the federal court in the Middle District of Florida.