ERO Phoenix arrests suspect connected to homicide investigation

PHOENIX – Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers in Phoenix, Arizona, conducted a targeted enforcement action that resulted in the arrest of an unlawfully present Mexican citizen on June 20. The previously removed individual has a prior burglary conviction, for which he spent three months in a county jail.

On May 23, ERO Phoenix received information that the non-citizen was wanted in connection with a homicide investigation; the person in question was the subject of an arrest warrant for vehicular manslaughter.

On June 20, ERO officers received intel that subsequently tracked the noncitizen to a possible location in Peoria, Arizona. ERO officers, assisted by Homeland Security Investigations special agents, arrested the fugitive in a public location without incident. ERO Phoenix officers arrested the Mexican national for his immigration violations, and he will remain in custody pending federal prosecution.

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 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.