ERO Boston arrests Ecuadoran national charged with kidnapping, indecent assault of a child
BOSTON — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston arrested an unlawfully present Ecuadoran national June 7 in Brockton.
Local police arrested a 35-year-old Ecuadoran man last month and charged him with multiple felonies, including two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14, one count of kidnapping of a child, and a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery. A local criminal court in Brockton released him on pretrial conditions following his arraignment.
“Unlawfully present suspected predators pose a public safety threat to families and communities in our region. They will be apprehended and removed by our officers,” said ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd Lyons. “This is a central part of ERO Boston’s mission, and we will not relent in pursuing it.”
The native of Ecuador, who admitted to crossing the United States’ southern border from Mexico without authorization in July 2016, is unlawfully present and has been determined by immigration authorities to be amenable to removal proceedings.
ERO Boston officers encountered the unlawfully present foreign citizen when he was driving without a valid driver’s license; his license had been suspended following his conviction in state court in October 2020 for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. He was arrested on immigration violations and taken into ERO Boston’s custody, where he will remain pending an upcoming hearing before a federal immigration judge.
Noncitizens placed into removal proceedings receive their legal due process from federal immigration judges in the immigration courts, which are administered by the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). EOIR is an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice and is separate from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 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. Once a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge or other lawful means, ICE officers may carry out the removal.
ERO officers make enforcement decisions on a case-by-case basis in a professional and responsible manner, informed by their experience as law enforcement officials and in a way that best protects against the greatest threats to the homeland and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws.
In fiscal year 2022, ERO arrested 46,396 noncitizens with criminal histories. This group had 198,498 associated charges and convictions, including 21,531 assault offenses; 8,164 sex and sexual assault offenses; 5,554 weapons offenses; 1,501 homicide-related offenses; and 1,114 kidnapping offenses.
For more news and information on how the ERO Boston field office carries out its immigration enforcement mission, follow us on Twitter @EROBoston.
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