ERO Washington, D.C. apprehends Salvadoran national wanted for aggravated homicide

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Washington, D.C. apprehended an undocumented Salvadoran national who is wanted by authorities in his home country for deprivation of liberty and aggravated homicide. ERO Washington, D.C.’s Special Response Team apprehended the undocumented noncitizen in Richmond, Virginia, on May 18. He will remain in ERO custody pending his removal to El Salvador.

Salvadoran authorities are actively seeking the noncitizen, who is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice.

The Salvadoran national entered the United States on an unknown date, at an unknown location, and without having been inspected or admitted by an immigration official.

In October 2016, the U.S. Border Patrol arrested him in Hidalgo, Texas.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued the noncitizen a notice to appear.

The government of El Salvador issued an arrest warrant for his arrest in July 2017 for the offense of aggravated homicide, and in July 2018 they issued an additional arrest warrant for the offense of deprivation of liberties.

In January 2019, Interpol issued a Red Notice for the pending charge of deprivation of liberties.

On April 17, 2023, an immigration judge with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) in Arlington, Virginia, ordered the noncitizen removed in absentia from the United States to El Salvador.

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 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 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.

As one of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) three operational directorates, Enforcement and Removal Operations (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 nondetained 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.