In just two weeks, U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations officers based in Houston deported 174 criminal aliens. According to the agency, the group of aliens included 24 gang members.
All of the arrested criminal aliens were deported to Mexico and, as a group, accounted for 610 criminal convictions for offenses committed in the United States. The group was no strangers to run-ins with immigration authorities as collectively, they had 415 prior removals from the United States.
The staggering statistics of crimes and prior removals the group shares may indicate they may soon attempt to return to the United States if history repeats itself. With strict, new enforcement measures under the Trump administration, that task will likely be more complex than in previous years.
According to ICE, among the group of illegal aliens removed to Mexico, two had been previously convicted of homicide-related offenses, four had convictions for rape or sexual assault, and five were convicted of child sex offenses. In addition, 72 had been convicted of physical assaults, 49 for theft-related crimes, and 22 for human smuggling-related offenses.
Those who had the most extensive immigration history included a 36-year-old criminal alien from Mexico who has been previously deported 39 times, convicted of illegal entry four times, and once for Driving While Intoxicate, possession of dangerous drugs, and fraud.
A 48-year-old criminal alien from Mexico had been removed from the U.S. 13 times, has 25 criminal convictions for criminal offenses including narcotics offenses, arrest, identity theft, domestic violence, assault, battery, larceny, kidnapping, illegal entry, illegal reentry, and destruction of evidence.
A 50-year-old criminal alien from Mexico and documented Florencia 13 gang member had been previously deported eight times and has been convicted of domestic violence, battery, possession of stolen property, drug possession, aggravated assault with a gun, and illegal entry.
ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford says the group of criminal aliens removed during the last two weeks of march represents just a small snapshot of the work ICE is doing in Texas. In an announcement highlighting the removals by ICE agents in Southeast Texas, Bradford said, “Each day they put their lives on the line to apprehend and remove dangerous criminal aliens, transnational gang members and foreign fugitives who have illegally entered the U.S. and are preying on innocent, hardworking Texans.”
As reported by Breitbart Texas, targeted deportation operations in the Houston area have resulted in hundreds of arrests, contributing to the higher removal cases by ICE Enforcement and Removal agents. In just one operation in late February, Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents and other state and local law enforcement officials arrested 118 illegal aliens during an immigration raid inside the Colony Ridge Subdivision near Houston, Texas. According to ICE, the multi-agency immigration operation resulted in the arrest of several illegal aliens with extensive criminal records.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Before his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
