ERO Baltimore apprehends previously removed noncitizen sex offender in Maryland

BALTIMORE — Deportation officers from Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Baltimore arrested an undocumented noncitizen and convicted sex offender July 19 in New Carrollton. The 39-year-old Salvadoran national had been previously removed from the United States following an April 2022 conviction for a third-degree sex offense in Baltimore County.

On an unknown date, the Salvadoran national entered the United States at an unknown location without being inspected, admitted or paroled by an immigration official.

Officers from the Baltimore County Police Department arrested him in August 2021 for sex offenses, assault and reckless endangerment.

In April 2022, the Circuit Court for Baltimore County in Towson convicted him of a third-degree sex offense and sentenced him to 10 years’ confinement followed by five years of supervised probation. The court suspended all 10 years’ confinement.

Later that month, ERO Baltimore arrested the Salvadoran national in Baltimore and served him with a document ordering him to appear before an immigration judge.

In May 2022, a Department of Justice immigration judge ordered him removed to El Salvador, which ERO did in July 2022.

On an unknown date, the Salvadoran national unlawfully reentered the United States at an unknown location. The U.S. District Court District of Maryland indicted him on July 18 for the illegally reentering the United States and failing to register as a sex offender.

ERO Baltimore arrested the Salvadoran national on July 19 at his residence in New Carrollton and transferred him to the U.S. Marshals Service for prosecution.

Noncitizens placed into removal proceedings receive their legal due process from federal immigration judges in the immigration courts, which are administered by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) within the Department of Justice. EOIR is a separate entity from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (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. Once a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge or other lawful means, ICE officers may carry out the removal.

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.