Repeat Offender Gets Just 3 Months for Harboring Illegal Aliens Across Three Montana Counties

GREAT FALLS — A Shelby woman with two prior immigration convictions was sentenced to three months in prison Wednesday for attempting to harbor illegal aliens, concluding a case that involved multiple traffic stops across three Montana counties and revealed a pattern of transporting undocumented immigrants between the Canadian border and central Montana.

Kristin Louise Mitchell, 41, received the sentence from Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris in Great Falls Federal District Court. She will serve two years of supervised release following her prison term.

Mitchell was convicted in July of one count of attempted harboring of illegal aliens following a two-day trial. She faced up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The sentence comes despite Mitchell’s history of immigration violations and a prior escape from federal custody^1, as previously reported.

Multi-County Investigation

The case began Feb. 21, 2025, when a Montana Highway Patrol officer conducted a traffic stop in Gallatin County on a vehicle displaying fictitious plates. The officer cited the driver and released the vehicle.

Four days later, a Border Patrol agent at the Sweetgrass Station ran a registration check on a temporary Montana vehicle tag in Shelby that matched the same vehicle from the February traffic stop.

On March 4, Border Patrol agents observed Mitchell driving the vehicle with two male occupants. Deputies from the Toole County Sheriff’s Office also spotted the vehicle and conducted a traffic stop when it failed to stop at an intersection in Shelby.

Mitchell told deputies the two men with her were political asylum seekers from Venezuela who did not speak English. When a Border Patrol agent who recognized Mitchell from a prior encounter at the northern border attempted to speak with the passengers in Spanish, Mitchell answered for them.

Neither man could produce documents to verify their legal status. All three occupants were detained and taken to the Sweetgrass Border Patrol Station, where records checks revealed the passengers were Venezuelan citizens with no record of legal admission to the United States.

Third Man Found at Home

While the traffic stop was ongoing, other Border Patrol officers surveilling Mitchell’s home spotted a third man outside the house who matched the description of someone encountered during the February traffic stop in Gallatin County.

He was detained and admitted he had been previously removed from the United States. Border Patrol determined this individual was a Honduran citizen.

DUI Arrest and Bail

One of the Venezuelan men testified in a deposition that he had been working on a commercial construction site near Bozeman when his employer refused to pay him, leaving him stranded. Through Mitchell’s connection to one of the Venezuelans, they decided to drive to Shelby to stay with her.

En route to Shelby, the men stopped at a Walmart and bought bottles of margaritas. They were later stopped in East Helena, where the driver was arrested for DUI.

Mitchell drove from Shelby to East Helena to bail the driver out of jail and collect the car, which was released to her. The three men then stayed with Mitchell at her Shelby home for several days before their arrest.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Border Patrol, Montana Highway Patrol and Toole County Sheriff’s Office. The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case as part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative aimed at combating illegal immigration and dismantling cartels and transnational criminal organizations.