Commencement Speaker
José Angel Moreno
José Angel Moreno was born in Nuevo Laredo and came to the United States at the age of seven without knowing a lick of English. He attended local public schools and graduated from Martin High School in 1975. In high school, Angel was a member of the “Laredo Baldies”, the national champion Jr.ROTC drill team in 1973. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps after high school. After graduating from Laredo State University with a B.S. in Criminal Justice in 1981, he obtained his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, TX in 1984.
Angel began his legal career at the District Attorney’s Office in Del Rio, TX in 1984 where her prosecuted felony cases. He became a Naturalized Citizen a year later. After three years at the DA’s Office, Angel became the Sector Counsel for the Del Rio Border Patrol Sector and was also appointed as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas. In 1989, Angel moved back to Laredo and joined the Webb County DA’s Office where he served as the First Assistant DA. While at the DA’s Office, Angel created their Criminal Complaint filing system, computerized the Hot Check system, and obtained and programmed their first electronic case management system.
In 1991, Angel joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Laredo and served as the AUSA-In-Charge from 1992 to 1997. In 1993, as part of a trial team in Brownsville, he prosecuted the first Drug Kingpin case where the defendant was sentenced to death for his drug and murder offenses. In 1994, Angel served a 1-year detail in Washington, DC as the Assistant Director for Criminal Programs for the Office of Legal Education where he provided training to federal prosecutors around the country. In 1997, Angel was then assigned to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) where he prosecuted drug, money laundering, and corruption cases in the Southern District of Texas. From 2001-2002, Angel served as the Program Manager for Plan Colombia where he oversaw the 12 Justice Sector Reform Programs to help Colombia reform its justice system. During that period, he also served as the Attaché for the Departments of Justice and Treasury at the embassy in Bogota, Colombia.
In 2002, he returned to Texas and served as the Narcotics Chief in the Houston Office. That year, he authored the proposal for the creation of what is now the OCDETF Strike Forces established throughout the United States. He also created the SoTX OCDETF Coordinator’s position and returned to the Laredo Office in 2003 to supervise the OCDETF AUSAs in South Texas until 2010. In 2010, he was judicially appointed as the United States Attorney for the SDTX and discharged that office until 2011. Angel returned to the Laredo office and served a second term as the AUSA-in-Charge in 2015-2017. During this second stint, he created the electronic filing system for Criminal Complaints and for Discovery submissions.
Angel served as an instructor at the National Advocacy Center since its creation in 1998. He also served as an international instructor for DOJ, the State Department, and the federal investigative agencies in most of Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, and Uganda. Angel retired from DOJ in January of 2024 but continues to work as an international consultant on Justice Sector Reform. This year, at the request of the State Department, Angel provided training to police, prosecutors, military, intelligence, political, and private sector groups in Chile on transnational organized crime.
Angel received the TAMIU Distinguished Alumni Award in 2010. Nominated by Bishop James A. Tamayo, he is serving his fourth year on the National Review Board for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Angel and his wife Martha celebrated 42 years of marriage this year. There son Johnny is making a go of it near Austin, Texas. They are enjoying their retirement and plan to travel as much as they can for as long as they can.
For more information, please contact the Office of the University Registrar at graduation@tamiu.edu or at 956.326.2250.