Criminal alien and illegal re-entrant sentenced for assault on ICE officer
WASHINGTON – A Honduran national and repeated illegal re-entrant was sentenced on May 3 to 12 months and one day after pleading guilty to one count of illegal re-entry and one count of assault on a law enforcement officer in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. A judge immediately sentenced Reyes-Martinez, taking into account his multiple illegal re-entries, his multiple instances of assaulting law enforcement, and the gravity of the injury to the officer in the course of his most recent arrest.
Orvin Omar Reyes-Martinez, 31, was most recently removed to Honduras on Dec. 16, 2016, and subsequently illegally re-entered the U.S. sometime thereafter. On Feb. 20, officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) encountered Reyes-Martinez when he was scheduled to appear at Fairfax County General District Court on local charges, to include a previous assault on a law enforcement officer.
Reyes-Martinez fled as ERO officers identified themselves and attempted to arrest him. Following his apprehension, a struggle ensued and Reyes-Martinez bit an officer, drawing blood from the puncture wound.
“Anyone in the course of his or her duties as a law enforcement officer routinely comes face to face with situations and individuals that threaten their safety,” said ERO Washington field office director Russell Hott. “I am comforted to see that our justice system continues to have no place for a dangerous and reoffending criminal alien who seeks to harm these officers sworn to serve and protect.”
ERO officers do not make civil immigration arrests inside courthouses indiscriminately. ICE civil immigration enforcement actions inside courthouses include actions against specific, targeted aliens with criminal convictions, gang members, national security or public safety threats, aliens who have been ordered removed from the United States but have failed to depart (fugitives), and aliens who have re-entered the country illegally after being removed, when ICE officers or agents have information that leads them to believe the targeted aliens are present at that specific location.
Other aliens encountered during a civil immigration enforcement action inside a courthouse, such as family members or friends accompanying the targeted alien to court appearances or serving as a witness in a proceeding, will not be subject to civil immigration enforcement action, absent special circumstances, such as when the individual poses a threat to public safety or interferes with ICE’s enforcement actions.
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