News Releases and Statements

ICE ERO Houston, with assistance from ERO El Salvador and the SAFE Task Force, removed Moises Antonio Chavez Figueroa, a 32-year-old unlawfully present Salvadoran fugitive, from the United States April 5.

ERO Philadelphia removed Stanford Jahmaal Omar Bastian, a citizen of the Bahamas with a final order of removal, to the Bahamas on March 26. Bastian is a foreign fugitive wanted by law enforcement authorities in the Bahamas for murder.

Oscar Efrain Zavala-Urrea, 23, a Salvadoran national residing in Silver Spring, received the 25-year prison sentence March 19 for his participation in a racketeering conspiracy that included a murder related to his activities as part of the notorious MS-13 street gang.

ERO Newark officers apprehended eight unlawfully present noncitizens with convictions for drug trafficking or multiple drug possession related offenses involving fentanyl, cocaine, heroin or synthetic drugs during a nationwide law enforcement effort between March 11 and March 26.

ICE ERO San Diego officers apprehended four unlawfully present noncitizens who have been convicted of drug trafficking or multiple drug possession related offenses involving methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, heroin or synthetic drugs during a nationwide law enforcement effort that ran from March 11 through March 26.

Those included removal flights to Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Mexico, Peru, Sierra Leone and Togo. If a noncitizen arrives and has no legal basis to remain in the United States they will be processed and removed quickly, consistent with U.S. law.

Director Lechleitner also met with Homeland Security Investigations special agents and Enforcement and Removal Operations officers in Allentown in a townhall.

April 7 marks the commemoration of the Rwandan genocide, where 500,000 to one million Rwandan lives were taken in a 100-day mass killing campaign directed at Rwanda’s minority Tutsi community. Moderate Hutus and others who opposed the killings were also killed during that period.

ICE continues to modernize the immigration system as resources allow to realize cost efficiencies across the operational landscape.

The Dominican national was admitted into the United States in October 2007 by U.S. Customs and Borders Protection.

The Indian national entered the United States Dec. 12, 2019, at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, as a nonimmigrant visitor.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership met with leaders from the Center for Immigration Studies today.

USBP in Eagle Pass, Texas, arrested the Colombian national on July 3, 2022, shortly after he unlawfully entered the United States. The USBP issued the noncitizen a notice to appear before a DOJ immigration judge and ERO enrolled the noncitizen into the Alternatives to Detention program.

Aurelio Coy-Quib, 41, Byron Randolfo Parada Vasquez, 27, and Luis Antonio Sian-Gonzalez, 33, were flown on a charter flight coordinated by ICE’s Air Operations Unit from the Alexandria International Airport in Alexandria, Louisiana, to the La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Eleazar Vilchiz Alonso, 62, pleaded guilty April 2 before U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo.

ERO officers in the Salt Lake City area of operations covering Utah, Nevada, Montana and Idaho apprehended nine unlawfully present noncitizens who have been convicted of drug trafficking or multiple drug possession-related offenses involving methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, heroin or synthetic drugs during a nationwide law enforcement effort that ran from March 11 through March 26.

ERO Boston arrested an alleged fentanyl trafficker who is wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic.

ERO officers apprehended 27 unlawfully present noncitizens who have been convicted of drug trafficking or multiple drug related offenses methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, heroin or synthetic drugs during a nationwide law enforcement effort that ran from March 11 through March 26.

ERO Harlingen officers apprehended six unlawfully present noncitizens who were convicted of drug trafficking or multiple drug possession related offenses involving methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, heroin or synthetic drugs during a nationwide law enforcement effort that ran from March 11 through March 26, 2024.

ICE ERO officers apprehended 28 unlawfully present noncitizens who have been convicted of drug trafficking or multiple drug possession-related offenses involving methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, or synthetic drugs during a nationwide law enforcement effort that ran from March 11 - 26, 2024.

Authorities in Lynn, Massachusetts, arrested the Guatemalan noncitizen in March 2022. The Lynn District Court in Lynn, Massachusetts arraigned him on assault and battery on a household member and strangulation/suffocation charges March 30, 2022.

Oscar Ramirez Jr, 38, from McAllen, was sentenced March 27 to 180 months in federal prison. At the hearing, the court heard additional information including that Ramirez had approximately 2,070 files of child pornography, of which 64 were videos. Some videos were more than 20 minutes long.

Victor Manuel Jimenez Ruiz, 33-year-old citizen of Mexico, was escorted by ERO officers from St. Paul, Minnesota, to the Brownsville, Texas, port of entry where he was transferred to Mexican authorities.

ERO New York City Fugitive Operations officers apprehended 13 unlawfully present noncitizens with convictions for drug trafficking or multiple drug possession related offenses involving methamphetamines, fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, or synthetic drugs during a nationwide law enforcement from March 11 – 26.

Juan Carlos Munoz, 42, of Mission, pleaded guilty March 29 before U.S. District Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa.