News Releases and Statements

Joselin Medina, 58, a citizen and national of Dominican Republic, was previously removed from the United States in 2002.  He has a past felony conviction for criminal sale of a controlled substance and a pending misdemeanor charge and felony re-entry charge.

Sheku Kumalah, 31, faces up to four years in federal prison at sentencing for obstructing his removal. According to court documents, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) deportation officers twice attempted to place Mr. Kumalah on escorted commercial flights to his home country at the Alexandria International Airport in July 2016 and August 2016.

On May 18, ICE lodged an immigration detainer on Aurelio Hernandez Cortez, a Mexican citizen, with the Middlesex County Adult Correctional Facility. On May 22, ICE lodged an immigration detainer on Maulik Gajjar, an Indian citizen, with the facility. 

All of the targets in this operation were criminal in nature. 93% of those that were arrested were convicted criminals and 87% of them had prior felony convictions.

According to court documents, Jose Francisco Grijalva Monroy, 49, a citizen of El Salvador, testified that as a soldier in the Salvadoran army, he tortured suspected guerrillas by hanging them by their hands from trees and slapping their chests with his bare hands.

ICE deportation officers conduct targeted enforcement operations every day in locations around the country as part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to protect the nation, uphold public safety, and protect the integrity of our immigration laws and border controls.

The ERO Fugitive Operations Teams in Dallas and Oklahoma are part of the nationwide teams that focus on aliens who pose a serious threat to national security or public safety, including members of transnational street gangs, child sex offenders and aliens with prior convictions for violent crimes. The enforcement operations conducted by the ERO Dallas and Oklahoma Fugitive Operations Teams are just one facet of the Department of Homeland Security's broader strategy to heighten the federal government’s effectiveness at identifying and removing dangerous criminal aliens from the United States.

According to court documents, Oniel Christopher Russell, a/k/a OG Russell, 39, an illegally present Jamaica national, threatened to kill an employee of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services by phone in October 2016 after posting a video of himself called “cop killer” on YouTube. Prior to this incident, Russell had previously been found in possession of a Ruger firearm by deputies with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in August 2013. It is a felony for an illegally present foreign national to possess a firearm.

According to court documents, Luis Bernardo Gonzalez-Martinez, 29, was convicted of burglary May 26, 2009. He was removed from the United States in June 2012 and again in June 2013. On April 1, 2017, immigration officers encountered Gonzalez-Martinez, a member of the Sureños (Sur 13) street gang, back in the United States illegally.

Daniel Evaristo Soto-Hernandez, 35, was transferred to the custody of Mexican authorities by San Diego-based officers from ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations’ (ERO) Special Response Team.

On April 14, 2016, ICE lodged an immigration detainer on Elder Antonio Quintero Rodriguez, a Honduran citizen. On May 19, 2017, the facility released him from custody without notifying ICE. Quintero Rodriguez has a felony conviction of endangering abuse; the neglect of a child. On April 21, 2017, ICE lodged an immigration detainer on Rolando Herrera Saavedra, a Mexican citizen. On April 29, 2017, the facility released him from custody without notifying ICE. Herrera Saavedra is currently facing state criminal charges. 

Andres Flores Lopez, 36, entered the United States without inspection at an unknown date and location. His two misdemeanor convictions are from December 2012 and May 2014.

Officers from the ERO Tulsa office arrested 22 criminal aliens and immigration violators during a six-week operation ending May 16. Those arrested are from the following countries:  Mexico (16), Guatemala (5) and Turkey (1).

A total of 186 foreign nationals were arrested over the last 10 days in the states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Delaware during a targeted enforcement operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aimed at criminal aliens, immigration fugitives, re-entrants, and other immigration violators.

Valentin Mendiola-Castaneda, 35, was transferred to the custody of Mexico’s Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR) and Mexican immigration by deportation officers with ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). Mendiola was arrested in January by officers with ERO’s Fugitive Operations and special agents with ICE Homeland Security Investigations. 

Filadelfo Cardona Martinez, 40, was escorted by ERO officers via an ICE Air Ops charter flight destined for Guatemala, where he was turned over to local authorities. In March 2017, Interpol issued a Red Notice for Cardona Martinez based on an arrest warrant issued on Feb 10, 2006 for homicide.

Gerardo Diaz-Rodriguez, a Mexican national who illegal re-entered the United States after being allowed to voluntarily depart the United States in lieu of formal removal in April 2003, was arrested by ICE deportation officers at his Clayton County residence during a targeted enforcement operation May 4 in concert with the U.S. Marshals Service Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Eduardo Maquitico-Guerrero, 40, was turned over to Mexican authorities May 4 at the international boundary on top of El Paso’s Stanton International Bridge. He is wanted in Morelos, Mexico, for the murder of Karla Yuridia Tavares Jimenez, who was shot in the head, and the aggravated assault of her young son, according to the Mexican arrest warrant.

Ingmar Guandique-Blanco, a documented MS-13 gang member, was transferred to the proper law enforcement authorities upon his arrival in El Salvador. Guandique traveled via ground transportation from Virginia to Pennsylvania where he boarded a flight to Alexandria, Louisiana.

Mario Granados-Alvarado was released from local custody May 3 despite immigration officials formally lodging a detainer with the Montgomery County Detention Center a day earlier. Montgomery County, Maryland, is listed as a jurisdiction that has publicly limited cooperation with ICE and frequently ignores legally authorized detainers.

Francisco Escobar-Orellana is wanted in Honduras pursuant to a May 2005 arrest warrant for allegedly hacking two men to death with a machete at a liquor store in 1993. Mr. Escobar subsequently unlawfully entered the United States at an unknown time and place.

In the course of normal targeted enforcement activities, ERO officers apprehended two individuals with past criminal sexual offenses. They were taken into custody and are currently being detained pending removal proceedings.

On April 25, 2017 ERO Newark officers arrested Castro-Pena in Somerville, New Jersey. He will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.