ERO Boston removes noncitizen to Libya

BOSTON — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston removed a Libyan foreign national who had been arrested multiple times on local assault and battery charges to Libya on May 11.

Aiyoub Muftah Alsallak, 30, a citizen of Libya, entered the United States in 2014 under a nonimmigrant student visa. Alsallak did not comply with the terms of his visa, remaining unlawfully in the United States since 2015.

In March 2021, officers from the Boston Police Department arrested Alsallak on charges of assault and battery with a deadly weapon. In September 2022, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police arrested him for assault and battery with a deadly weapon, a civil rights violation, and assault and battery with injuries.

In September 2022, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued an immigration detainer to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police for Alsallak, who authorities transferred to ERO Boston custody in October 2022.

In December 2022, a federal immigration judge with the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) ordered Alsallak removed from the country. ERO Boston removed him Tripoli, Libya, on May 11.

Noncitizens placed into removal proceedings receive their legal due process from federal immigration judges in the immigration courts, which are administered by the 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.