ERO New York City removes Peruvian national accused of human rights violations

NEW YORK - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) New York City removed a Peruvian national accused of crimes stemming from membership in the Colina Group, a death squad, including the forced disappearance of nine students and a professor in Lima’s La Cantuta neighborhood in July 1992.

Aldo Albert Velásquez Asencio, 57, was removed from the United States on March 31.

ERO New York served Velásquez Asencio with a notice to appear charging him with removability pursuant to Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) section 212(a)(6)(A)(i) as an individual who entered the United States without inspection and admission or parole on Feb. 24, 2022. This case was litigated by the Office of Principal Legal Advisor in New York and supported by the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC), which provided information about human rights abuses in Peru.

ICE 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.

In September 2022, a federal immigration judge with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) ordered Velásquez Asencio removed from the United States to Peru. The Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed his appeal in January.

Noncitizens placed into removal proceedings receive their legal due process from federal immigration judges in the immigration courts, which are administered by DOJ’s EOIR. EOIR is an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice and is separate from the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case. ERO officers carry out the removal decisions made by the federal immigration judges.

Established in 2008, the HRVWCC furthers HSI’s efforts to identify, locate and prosecute human rights abusers in the United States, including those who are known or suspected to have participated in persecution, war crimes, genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, female genital mutilation and the use or recruitment of child soldiers. The HRVWCC leverages the expertise of a select group of agents, lawyers, intelligence and research specialists, historians and analysts who direct the agency’s broader enforcement efforts against these offenders. Since 2003, HSI has arrested more than 480 individuals for human rights-related violations of the law under various criminal and/or immigration statutes. During that same period, ERO physically removed 1,100 known or suspected human rights violators from the United States. Additionally, it has facilitated the departure of an additional 186 such individuals from the United States. Since 2003, the HRVWCC has issued more than 78,000 lookouts for individuals and stopped over 350 human rights violators and war crimes suspects from entering the United States.

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.

For more news and information on how the ERO New York field office carries out its immigration enforcement mission, follow us on Twitter @ERONewYork.

Members of the public who have information about foreign fugitives are urged to contact ICE by calling the ICE tip line at 866-347-2423 internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They can also file a tip online by completing ICE’s online tip form. Callers may remain anonymous.