ICE Houston removes Guatemalan fugitive wanted for child abuse

HOUSTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston field office, with assistance from ERO Guatemala and the Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement Task Force, removed Lina Elizabeth Chilel Bail, a 30-year-old unlawfully present Guatemalan fugitive from the United States July 31. Chilel is wanted in Guatemala for child abuse.

Chilel was flown from Alexandria, Louisiana, on a charter flight coordinated by ICE's Air Operations Unit to the La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Upon arrival, she was turned over to Guatemalan law enforcement authorities.

“Foreign fugitives who flee their own country and illegally enter the U.S. hoping to evade criminal prosecution abroad will find no safe haven here in southeast Texas,” said ERO Houston acting Field Office Director Gabriel Martinez. “Our immigration officers work closely with their domestic and international partners to aggressively track down these threats to public safety and repatriate them to their country of origin to face justice for their alleged crimes.”

Chilel illegally entered the United States on an unknown date and at an unknown location without inspection, admission or parole by a U.S. immigration officer. On Sept. 30, 2022, Chilel was encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol near McAllen, Texas, and she was taken into custody. On Oct. 5, 2022, Border Patrol officials released Chilel on an order of recognizance.

On Aug. 30, 2023, ERO Houston encountered Chilel at the Harris County Jail in Texas after she was arrested for aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and an immigration detainer was lodged with the jail. On Jan. 24, Chilel was convicted in the 487th District Court in Houston of the lesser offense of assault causing bodily injury to a family member and was sentenced to one year in jail.

On Jan. 25, the Harris County Jail transferred Chilel into ERO Houston custody, and she was placed into immigration proceedings. On March 20, an immigration judge with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review ordered Chilel removed from the United States to Guatemala. On April 1, Chilel appealed that decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals. On May 30, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed her appeal. ICE officers removed Chilel to Guatemala July 31.

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 or internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They can also file a tip online by completing ICE’s online tip form.

For more news and information on how the ERO Houston field office carries out its immigration enforcement mission in Southeast Texas follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @EROHouston.

The SAFE Program is a fugitive enforcement and information sharing partnership that was created in 2012 to better use subject information derived from local in-country investigative resources and leads to locate, apprehend, detain and remove individuals residing in the United States illegally who were subject to foreign arrest warrants. The SAFE Program operates under the respective host nation’s AAR, which constructs a SAFE task force composed of relevant foreign law enforcement agencies, immigration authorities, attorneys general, and national identification repositories — as well as other regional, national, state and local government agencies. The managing AAR ensures that each task force member complies with SAFE policies and standards consistent with the program’s standard operating procedures. Once established, the AAR-led SAFE task force generates new leads and vets existing SAFE fugitive referrals for ERO action.

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.