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July 17, 2023Boston, MA, United StatesEnforcement and Removal

ERO Boston removes fugitive wanted for passport fraud, theft in Ireland

Patrick Connors, 31

BOSTON — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston removed an unlawfully present Irish citizen identified as a member of a transnational criminal organization who is wanted for passport fraud, theft and multiple motor vehicle offenses in the Republic of Ireland on July 13.

Patrick Connors, 31, was admitted into the United States in August 2021 and violated the terms of his admission when he failed to depart by November 2021. Law enforcement officials in Ireland and the United States identified Connors as a member of a transnational criminal organization called the Traveling Conmen Fraud Group. ERO Boston arrested him in Billerica, near Boston.

“Fugitives from justice cannot avoid accountability for criminal behavior in their native country by hiding in our communities,” said ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd Lyons. “ERO Boston takes our duty to enforce immigration law seriously. We will apprehend those wanted by foreign authorities for serious crimes, including fraud, who are unlawfully present in the U.S., and we will remove them to face justice for their crimes in their home country.”

Noncitizens placed into removal proceedings receive their legal due process from federal immigration judges in the immigration courts, which are administered by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) within the Department of Justice. EOIR is a separate entity from the U.S. 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 removable 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, ERO officers carry out the removal decisions made by the federal immigration judges.

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.

As one of ICE’s three operational directorates, ERO 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.

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