ICE Houston removes Salvadoran fugitive wanted for aggravated femicide, aggravated homicide and gang membership

HOUSTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston, with assistance from ERO El Salvador and the Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement Task Force, removed Alexis Bladimir Canizales Romero, a 27-year-old unlawfully present Salvadoran fugitive and MS-13 gang member, from the United States Aug. 30. Canizales is wanted in El Salvador for aggravated femicide, aggravated homicide and unlawful association (gang membership).

Canizales was flown from Alexandria, Louisiana, on a charter flight coordinated by ICE's Air Operations Unit to the El Salvador International Airport Saint Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez in San Salvador. Upon arrival, he was turned over to Salvadoran law enforcement authorities.

“This foreign fugitive and MS-13 gang member illegally entered the United States on multiple occasions to avoid prosecution in his home country of El Salvador for aggravated femicide, aggravated homicide and unlawful association,” said ERO Houston acting Field Office Director Gabriel Martinez. “Thanks to the strong relationship we have with local law enforcement partners and the due diligence of our immigration officers, we were able to successfully connect him to these alleged crimes and repatriate him to El Salvador to face justice.”

Canizales first illegally entered the United States on March 25, 2020, near Hidalgo. He was immediately apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol and expelled from the U.S. under Title 42 that same day.

On an unknown date, Canizales illegally reentered the U.S. at an unknown location, without inspection, admission or parole by a U.S. immigration officer. On March 31, 2024, ERO Houston encountered Canizales at the Harris County Jail following his arrest for driving while intoxicated. Immigration checks confirmed that he was in the United States illegally and wanted for aggravated femicide, aggravated homicide and unlawful association in El Salvador, and an immigration detainer was lodged with the jail. That same day he was transferred into ICE custody at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe and placed into immigration proceedings. On July 5, an immigration judge with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review ordered Canizales removed from the United States to El Salvador. ICE officers removed him to El Salvador Aug. 30.

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, @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 U.S. 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.