ERO Baltimore apprehends Honduran national convicted of sex crimes in Maryland
BALTIMORE — On Sept. 8, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Baltimore arrested an undocumented noncitizen who was convicted of sex crimes in Maryland. Deportation officers from the ERO Baltimore’s Criminal Apprehensions Program took the 31-year-old Honduran national into custody at the Maryland Division of Corrections’ Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown. He will remain in ERO custody pending his removal from the United States.
“This Honduran noncitizen poses a very serious threat to our community as long as he remains in Maryland,” said ERO Baltimore acting Field Office Director Darius Reeves. “He has been convicted of some heinous crimes against a child. ERO Baltimore will not allow the citizens of our Maryland neighborhoods to remain at risk from child sex offenders like this individual.”
The Honduran noncitizen unlawfully entered the United States on an unknown date at an unknown location without being admitted by an immigration official.
The Baltimore City Police Department arrested the Honduran national in October 2016 for sexually abusing a minor.
ERO Baltimore lodged an immigration detainer against him in May 2017, at Baltimore City Central Booking.
The Circuit Court for Baltimore City convicted the Honduran noncitizen in July 2017 of sex abuse of a minor and sentenced him to 25 years of incarceration followed by five years of supervised probation. However, the court suspended 15 years of his prison sentence. The same day, the Baltimore City Circuit Court also convicted the Honduran national of sex offense-second degree and sentenced him to 20 years of incarceration followed by five years of supervised probation. However, the court suspended all 20 years of his incarceration.
Baltimore City Central Booking transferred the Honduran national to Roxbury Correctional Institution's custody to serve his sentence for sex abuse of a minor.
In December 2017, ERO Baltimore served the Honduran noncitizen with a notice to appear ordering him to appear before a federal judge in an immigration court. Immigration courts are administered by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) within the Department of Justice. EOIR is a separate entity from DHS and ICE. Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case, determining if a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal or eligible for certain forms of relief from removal.
In September 2018, an EOIR immigration judge ordered the noncitizen removed from the United States to Honduras.
ERO Baltimore arrested the Honduran national at Roxbury Correctional Institution on Sept. 8, 2023. He will remain in ICE custody pending his removal to Honduras.
ERO conducts removals of individuals without a lawful basis to remain in the United States, including at the order of immigration judges with the Justice Department’s EOIR.
As part of its mission to identify and arrest removable noncitizens, ERO lodges immigration detainers against noncitizens who have been arrested for criminal activity and taken into custody by state or local law enforcement. An immigration detainer is a request from ICE to state or local law enforcement agencies to notify ICE as early as possible before a removable noncitizen is released from their custody. Detainers request that state or local law enforcement agencies maintain custody of the noncitizen for a period not to exceed 48 hours beyond the time the individual would otherwise be released, allowing ERO to assume custody for removal purposes in accordance with federal law.
Detainers are a critical public safety tool because they focus enforcement resources on removable noncitizens who have been arrested for criminal activity. Detainers increase the safety of all parties involved — ERO personnel, law enforcement officials, removable noncitizens and the public — by allowing an arrest to be made in a secure and controlled custodial setting as opposed to at-large within the community. Since detainers result in the direct transfer of a noncitizen from state or local custody to ERO custody, they also minimize the potential that an individual will reoffend. Additionally, detainers conserve scarce government resources by allowing ERO to take criminal noncitizens into custody directly rather than expending resources locating these individuals at-large.
As one of ICE’s three operational directorates, ERO is the principal federal law enforcement authority in charge of domestic immigration enforcement. ERO’s mission is to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of U.S. communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and its primary areas of focus are interior enforcement operations, management of the agency’s detained and non-detained populations, and repatriation of noncitizens who have received final orders of removal. ERO’s workforce consists of more than 7,700 law enforcement and non-law enforcement support personnel across 25 domestic field offices and 208 locations nationwide, 30 overseas postings, and multiple temporary duty travel assignments along the border.
Learn more about ERO Baltimore’s mission to preserve public safety on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EROBaltimore.
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