Inside ICE: Volume 4, Issue 3

Fugitive Operations Teams Active Across the Country

A fugitive alien apprehended in San Diego in April.

ICE Fugitive Operations Teams identify dangerous fugitive and criminal aliens and place them in removal proceedings. Removing these aliens from streets and neighborhoods is an agency-wide initiative that improves national security and reduces local crime rates.

May 1st marked the completion of a three-week targeted law enforcement operation in New Jersey that resulted in the arrest of 217 immigration violators and alien fugitives, including 37 with criminal records. Among this group were Edgar Gomez Romero, a 32 year-old Mexican national convicted of assault, burglary and criminal mischief and Wesley Stephen Retemiah, a 41-year-old Guyanan national convicted of multiple drug offenses and weapons possession.

Individuals arrested during the New Jersey operation came from the following 31 countries: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nepal, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia.

Criminal convictions among those arrested include sexual assault, child abuse, domestic violence, theft, criminal mischief, weapons charges, counterfeit credit cards, identity theft, burglary, possession of drugs with the intent to distribute, terroristic threats, patronizing prostitution, aggravated assault, and driving under the influence.

In late April in Yavapai County, Arizona, a total of 35 immigration violators were arrested during a joint three-day operation.

Around the same time in Dallas, Texas, ICE officers arrested 148 illegal aliens including 41 with criminal convictions, during a four-day enforcement operation.

Among those arrested were 124 men and 17 women; seven juveniles were also apprehended and returned to their countries of origin. Most were from Mexico, and 84 of them were able to be quickly returned to Mexico.

Arrestees included; David Santamaria, from Mexico, was convicted of "unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor under the age of 18" in Los Angeles, Calif. and Jose Aleman, from El Salvador, who was convicted for "indecency with a child, sexual contact" in Dallas.

In mid-April, ICE officers arrested 49 illegal aliens, criminals and immigration fugitives during a four-day operation in Minnesota.

Also among those arrested were six fugitives - illegal aliens who had been ordered removed by a federal immigration judge but failed to surrender or leave the U.S.-and 25 aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law.

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