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April 26, 2023Boston, MA, United StatesEnforcement and Removal

ERO Boston arrests foreign fugitive convicted and sentenced to prison in Brazil

BOSTON — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston arrested an unlawfully present Brazilian national who was convicted and sentenced to prison in Brazil for homicide in Boston on April 25.

The man, 39, entered the U.S. lawfully in July 2021 and remained after his visa expired.

In February 2023, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attaché in Brazil notified ERO Boston that the man had been designated as a foreign fugitive and was wanted by law enforcement in the state of Goiania, Brazil, where he had been convicted of homicide and sentenced in December 2018 to serve 19 years and 10 months in prison. ERO Boston located and arrested him without incident in Boston April 25. The man will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

“The residents of Massachusetts can sleep easier tonight knowing that this convicted foreign fugitive murderer has been removed from their neighborhood by the officers of ERO Boston,” said ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd Lyons. “ERO Boston takes seriously its mission of protecting the public safety of residents.”

Noncitizens placed into removal proceedings receive their legal due process from federal immigration judges in the immigration courts, which are administered by the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). EOIR is an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice and is separate from the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case. ERO officers carry out the removal decisions made by the federal immigration judges.

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.

In fiscal year 2022, ERO arrested 46,396 noncitizens with criminal histories. This group had 198,498 associated charges and convictions, including 21,531 assault offenses; 8,164 sex and sexual assault offenses; 5,554 weapons offenses; 1,501 homicide-related offenses; and 1,114 kidnapping offenses.

For more news and information on how the ERO Boston field office carries out its immigration enforcement mission, follow us on Twitter @EROBoston.

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