ICE consists of three directorates to accomplish the agency’s mission, including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) and Management and Administration (M&A).
ICE's primary mission is to promote homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade and immigration.
Catch up on ICE’s most popular news stories from the week ending March 25, 2016
ICE executes its mission through the enforcement of more than 400 federal statutes, focusing on preventing terrorism, immigration enforcement and combating transnational crime.
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ICE removed or returned 258,085 aliens in fiscal year 2018. Enforcement and Removal Operations arrested 158,581 aliens, 90 percent of whom had criminal convictions, pending criminal charges, or previously issued final orders. The overall arrest figure represents an 11 percent increase over fiscal year 2017.
Seven members of a drug trafficking organization that distributed large quantities of crack cocaine, as well as heroin laced with fentanyl, over a two-year period, in and around the Village of Ellenville in Ulster County, New York were indicted federally following an investigation by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York with the Ulster County Sheriff's Office, the New York State Police and the Village of Ellenville Police.
According to the investigation, David Saul Salazar, 49, Packwood, Washington, was traveling with Gregorio Capetillo and Luis Parra Magana from Washington state to Minot, North Dakota. During that trip, Berthold police chief stopped the car and discovered about 10 pounds of methamphetamine and multiple firearms.
Carlos Juarez-Sanchez, a 33 year old Honduran national, has a history of illegal entry and arrests for multiple criminal offenses in the U.S. dating back to 2003. He was removed to Honduras by ICE in 2008, 2013, and 2014, and illegally re-entered the U.S. after each removal.
Rene Flores-Calderon, 35, from Mexico, appeared in federal court before U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey who accepted his guilty plea.
Law enforcement authorities arrested 43 people Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a federal drug investigation dubbed “Operation Wrecking Ball” into alleged drug trafficking and related crimes that spanned multiple jurisdictions and states.
Yermin Alexander Diaz-Chavarria, a Salvadoran national, was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol August 23, 2015, at Hidalgo Texas, for entering the country illegally. In 2017, El Salvador issued a warrant of arrest for Diaz for aggravated murder and affiliation with criminal organizations. On Feb. 13, 2018, Diaz did not appear for his immigration court hearing, and an immigration judge in Newark ordered him removed to El Salvador. On Feb. 11, 2019, ERO officers arrested Diaz in Newark. ERO officers removed him from the U.S. on March 8, 2019, and turned him over to Salvadoran authorities.
Sarah M. Wiley, 35, pleaded guilty to two counts before a United States District Judge.
Jeffrey H. Ernisse, 61, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Lynn S. Adelman to two counts of producing child pornography, one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in the Philippines, and one count of possessing child pornography.
Willis DeLaRosa-Baez, 34, was sentenced March 14, on the aforementioned charges. DeLaRosa-Baez, his co-defendant, Daniel Silvestre-Ubri, and other individuals conspired to distribute heroin and crystal methamphetamine in Pennsylvania between February 4, 2016, and April 6, 2016.
Raymond Larry Edward Kennedy, 24, of Kalispell, pleaded guilty to sexual exploiting a child and receiving child pornography. He faces a mandatory minimum 15 years to 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and five years to life of supervised release.
Xiangyu Zhang, an illegal alien from China residing in La Marque, Texas, was sentenced to 61 months in federal prison on March 14; he received 37 months for the firearms conviction, and a mandatory consecutive 24 months for identity theft.
Following an investigation by ICE's HSI in New York with the NYPD, a federal indictment was unsealed Wednesday charging Jamal Brissett, aka “Trigger” with murdering Leshaun Gordon, 19, in the Bronx, New York, on June 30, 2009.
Brandon Hileman, 26, of Lebanon, was sentenced to 97 months in federal prison without parole by U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool.
Federal authorities this morning arrested five defendants linked to a scheme that helped Chinese nationals obtain student visas by hiring individuals who used fake Chinese passports to take an English proficiency test for the foreign students.
ERO deportation officers escorted Jeroen Van Den Elshout, 39, to Amsterdam, via a commercial flight and transferred him into the custody of Dutch law enforcement authorities.
Lancelot De Montsegur, aka Patrice Berthome, 38, was named in a one-count Indictment, returned on Feb. 19, as the as the sole defendant. He faces a maximum total sentence of 30 years in prison, a fine of $1,000,000 or both.
An examination of a shipping container entering the United States revealed 60 packages containing a white powdery substance that field-tested positive for cocaine. This apprehension is the second largest cocaine seizure at the Port of New York/Newark, and the largest in nearly 25 years.
On March 6, in the 359th Montgomery County (Texas) District Court, Jeffrey Pittman, 47, from Porter, Texas, pleaded guilty to and was ordered to serve 30 years in prison for continuous sexual assault of a child; he was also sentenced to 20 years for sexual assault of a child. Pittman’s sentences are to be served concurrently. He is not eligible for early parole.
In an effort to mitigate vulnerabilities within the commerce stream that threaten the nation’s consumers and to protect national security, Homeland Security officials recently launched its Global Trade Task Force (GTTF), an ICE HSI-led multi-agency effort that leverages robust import and export controls and investigative authorities to combat illicit commercial activities.
On March 6, 2019, Gregg A. Johnson, 42, of Tucson, was found guilty by a federal jury of three counts of submitting false statements to a government agency.
Following an investigation by ICE’s HSI New York’s El Dorado Task Force, the former Venezuelan Vice President Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah (“El Aissami”) and Venezuelan businessman Samark Jose Lopez Bello were charged Thursday with criminal violations of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act and sanctions imposed in February 2017 by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control pursuant to the Kingpin Act.
On Feb. 26, a federal grand jury returned a 38-count indictment against U.S. and Philippines-based conspirators for operating a fraudulent scheme to import Native American-style jewelry and sell it to retail stores and individuals across the southwest United States as authentic jewelry made by Native Americans. The conspirators allegedly perpetrated this international fraud and money laundering scheme for several years in violation of federal laws, including the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (IACA).
The court’s order was based on its finding that Sammy Rasema Yetisen aka Rasema Handanovic aka Zolja, a native of the former Yugoslavia, lacked the good moral character required to naturalize because during the 1990s Balkans Conflicts she had executed six unarmed civilians and prisoners of war because of their religion and ethnicity.
Gulnara Karimova, 46, a citizen of Uzbekistan, was charged in an indictment filed in the Southern District of New York on March 7 with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Karimova is a former Uzbek official who allegedly had influence over the Uzbek governmental body that regulated the telecom industry. Bekhzod Akhmedov, 44, a citizen of Uzbekistan and the former Uzbek executive, was charged in the same indictment with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), two counts of violating the FCPA, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Karimova’s and Akhmedov’s case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood of the Southern District of New York.
