ERO Baltimore arrests Guatemalan national convicted of assault in Maryland

BALTIMORE — Enforcement and Removal Operations Baltimore apprehended an unlawfully present 28-year-old Guatemalan national convicted of assaulting a Maryland resident. Officers from ERO Baltimore’s Fugitive Operations Team arrested Walter Romeo Saloj-Pecher Aug. 14 in Hyattsville. Saloj has also been charged with another assault and robbery.

“Walter Romeo Saloj-Pecher has not only displayed a disregard for U.S. immigration laws. He has also assaulted a member of our Maryland community,” said ERO Baltimore acting Field Office Director Matthew Elliston. “Furthermore, he has been charged with another assault and robbery in a different county. This incident is particularly unfortunate in that one county’s refusal to cooperate with ERO apparently resulted in the suspect committing a subsequent crime in a neighboring county. ERO Baltimore will continue to prioritize public safety by aggressively apprehending and removing egregious noncitizen offenders from our Maryland neighborhoods.”

U.S. Border Patrol apprehended Saloj Jan. 31, 2013, after he unlawfully entered the United States near Falfurrias, Texas. U.S. Border Patrol officials served Saloj with a notice to appear before a Department of Justice immigration judge.

U.S. Border Patrol transferred custody of Saloj to ERO Houston Feb. 1, 2013. Later that day, ERO Houston transferred custody of Saloj to the Office of Refugee Resettlement in Baytown, Texas.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement released Saloj from custody March 25, 2013.

On August 5, 2014, a DOJ immigration judge in Baltimore ordered Saloj removed from the United States to Guatemala.

Maryland’s Howard County Police Department arrested Saloj Sept. 24, 2023, and charged him with assault in the second degree. Later that day, ERO lodged an immigration detainer against Saloj with the Howard County Detention Center.

The Howard County Detention Center refused to honor ERO’s immigration detainer and released Saloj from custody on an unknown date.

The Montgomery County Police Department filed a warrant for Saloj’s arrest Oct. 24, 2023, for the offenses of robbery, assault in the second degree and theft less than $100.

The District Court of Maryland in Howard County convicted Saloj Dec. 13, 2023, for assault in the second degree and sentenced him to five years in prison to be followed by 12 months of supervised probation before judgement. The court then suspended four years and 364 days of the prison sentence.

Officers from ERO Baltimore’s Fugitive Operations Team arrested Saloj Aug. 14 in Hyattsville, Maryland. He remains in ERO custody.

As part of its mission to identify and arrest removable noncitizens, ERO lodges immigration detainers against noncitizens who have been arrested for criminal activity and taken into custody by state or local law enforcement. An immigration detainer is a request from ICE to state or local law enforcement agencies to notify ICE as early as possible before a removable noncitizen is released from their custody. Detainers request that state or local law enforcement agencies maintain custody of the noncitizen for a period not to exceed 48 hours beyond the time the individual would otherwise be released, allowing ERO to assume custody for removal purposes in accordance with federal law.

Detainers are critical public safety tools because they focus enforcement resources on removable noncitizens who have been arrested for criminal activity. Detainers increase the safety of all parties involved — ERO personnel, law enforcement officials, removable noncitizens and the public — by allowing an arrest to be made in a secure and controlled custodial setting as opposed to at-large within the community. Because detainers result in the direct transfer of a noncitizen from state or local custody to ERO custody, they also minimize the potential that an individual will reoffend. Additionally, detainers conserve scarce government resources by allowing ERO to take criminal noncitizens into custody directly rather than expending resources locating these individuals at-large.

ERO conducts removals of individuals without a lawful basis to remain in the United States, including at the order of immigration judges with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. The Executive Office for Immigration Review is a separate entity from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case, determining if a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal or eligible for certain forms of relief from removal.

Members of the public can report crimes or suspicious activity by dialing 866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423) or completing the ICE online tip form.

As one of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s three operational directorates, Enforcement and Removal Operations 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.

Learn more about ERO Baltimore’s mission to increase public safety in our Maryland communities on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @EROBaltimore.