ERO Boston apprehends Brazilian noncitizen wanted for drug trafficking conviction

BOSTON — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston apprehended an undocumented noncitizen July 26 who is wanted in Brazil for a February 2022 drug trafficking conviction. Deportation officers arrested the 35-year-old Brazilian national in Medford following notification that she is a foreign fugitive.

She faces a 70-month prison sentence upon her return to Brazil.

The Brazilian national initially entered the United States at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City in March 2020. She entered the country legally with a visitor’s visa and was authorized to remain until September 2020.

There is no record of the undocumented noncitizen ever leaving or reentering the United States.

The Brazilian citizen was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to five years and ten months in prison in February 2022.

In December 2022, the 3rd Criminal Court of the District of Assis/Sao Paulo issued a warrant for the Brazilian citizen, and on July 18, authorities notified ERO Boston that the undocumented noncitizen was a foreign fugitive.

ERO Boston’s Fugitive Operations South Team targeted the Brazilian native for arrest and apprehended her on July 26 and took her into custody. ERO officers transported the undocumented noncitizen to the ERO office in Burlington, where she was booked, processed, issued and served with charging documents. She will remain in ERO custody pending her removal.

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 within the Department of Justice. The Executive Office for Immigration Review 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.