Haitian national who bit ICE officers on aircraft sentenced after OPR investigation
SAN ANTONIO — A federal jury convicted a Haitian national on May 2 of two counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees and inflicting bodily injury. It also convicted him of one count of assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers or employees involving physical contact. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Office of Professional and Responsibility (OPR) conducted the investigation that led to the man’s conviction.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, ICE officers were loading 112 Haitian nationals onto a contract aircraft in San Antonio bound for Port Au Prince, Haiti, in September 2021 when several individuals were involved in a disturbance in the middle section of the aircraft. Jubenson Domenique, 29, was identified as the main instigator of the disturbance and a decision was made for three officers to remove him from the aircraft.
During Domenique’s extraction from the aircraft, he bit the officers, breaking skin and leaving teeth marks on all three. Emergency medical services responded, and one officer was treated at a local hospital, provided prescriptions, and began treatment and testing for possible infections, including six months of HIV treatment.
“This guilty verdict sends a strong message that this type of egregious behavior will not be tolerated," said OPR Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Huerta. "Protecting our ICE employees is paramount. All assaults or threats against our employees will be aggressively investigated, and criminal charges initiated whenever possible, such as in this case."
Domenique faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count of inflicting bodily injury and eight years in prison for the third count.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amanda Brown and Amy Hail of the Western District of Texas are prosecuting the case.
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