News Releases and Statements

From Monday, Dec. 7, to Tuesday, Dec. 17, ERO Atlanta officers arrested seven individuals who failed to depart after being granted voluntary departure. All seven of those arrested had prior criminal convictions.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched a billboard campaign today in Asheville, North Carolina, to alert the public of at-large immigration violators who may pose a public safety threat to the community. Several of the individuals were previously arrested or convicted of crimes in the U.S., but were released into the community instead of being transferred into ICE custody pursuant to an immigration detainer.

From Monday, Dec. 7, to Tuesday, Dec. 17, ICE Enforcement and Removal (ERO) officers arrested more than 150 individuals, including 117 who failed to depart after being granted voluntary departure. About 71% of those arrested had criminal convictions or pending charges.

RAVEN was recognized for its outstanding work in support of the PSN Program, which has brought important results to the Denver Metropolitan Area. Thanks to the work of the task force, 122 violent offenders were prosecuted in 2019, and another 147 violent offenders were prosecuted this past year.

Anthony Jones, 51, was pronounced dead at 9:59 a.m. (CST) by medical professionals responding to the Adams County Detention Center emergency room, where Jones had sought treatment that morning.

These spoofed websites were used to collect the personal information of individuals visiting the sites, in order to use the information for nefarious purposes, including fraud, phishing attacks and/or deployment of malware. Individuals visiting those sites now will receive a message that the site has been seized by the federal government and be redirected to another site for additional information.

The counterfeit items included more than one million erectile dysfunction pills, footwear, belts, purses and headphones in violation of registered and recorded trademarks. If genuine, the seized merchandise would have had an estimated MSRP of $32,161,194.00.

Law enforcement arrested Zheng “Miranda” Zhou, 53, of Missouri City, and Kun “Bruce” Liu, 40, of Sugar Land, Dec. 14. Both made their initial appearances in Houston federal court Dec. 15, at which time the criminal indictment was unsealed.

In August 1998, Arturo Rodriguez-Rodriguez, 47, was convicted of murder in the first degree in the Washington State Superior Court for Yakima County and sentenced to 320 months of confinement.

Eduardo Flores-Rodriguez, 33, was removed from the United States via an ICE Air Operations charter flight and transferred to the custody of Mexican authorities.

On behalf of the United States and the United Kingdom, officials from CBP and ICE signed a CMAA on Dec. 16 to further enhance bilateral efforts to secure and facilitate lawful trade. The U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood Johnson and The Rt. Hon. Jesse Norman, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, signed the agreement in London.

Horacio Ornelas-Lomeli, 38, was removed from the U.S. via an ICE Air Operations charter flight and transferred to the custody of Mexican authorities.

ICE’s 287(g) reports detail examples of enforcement actions made as a direct result of the cooperative agreements between state and local law enforcement partners and the federal agency.

On Jan. 9, 1998, Morales-Ramirez, now 44, was convicted of second-degree murder, assault on a child causing death, and great bodily injury to a child causing death by the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.

Fraudulent schemes may include the sale of counterfeit COVID-19 vaccines and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and so-called preventive medical treatments. ICE HSI El Paso seeks to identify people who may be victims of COVID-19 related fraud.

Update: On Saturday, Dec. 12, ICE officers arrested Luis Cordon-Guzman, 31, who escaped from Essex County Jail on Dec. 4 while facing pending removal proceedings.

A six-count indictment was unsealed in the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) Thursday charging Dat Tat Ho and Manh Ngoc Nguyen with conspiring to defraud U.S. government agencies and alien smuggling for financial gain, and related crimes. The defendants allegedly smuggled Vietnamese aliens into the United States to work for illegally low wages at hair and nail salons in New York City and on Long Island.

On Dec. 13, 1985, the Portland Police Bureau arrested Luis Lopez Carrasco, 56, for murder and other local charges.

On Jan. 13, 2011, Compton Eversley, aka Abdel Nur, 70, was convicted and sentenced in a Brooklyn federal court to 168 months in prison for providing material support to a conspiracy that planned to attack the John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in Jamaica, New York, by exploding fuel tanks and the fuel pipeline under the airport. Eversley believed the attack would cause extensive damage to the airport and to the New York economy, as well as the loss of numerous lives.

David Paul Farrar, 58, pleaded guilty Aug. 4 to sexual exploitation of a child and transportation of child pornography.

The schemes are outlined in a 49-page indictment, which was filed late Wednesday and is the latest case resulting from an operation in Sept. 2014 when law enforcement authorities executed dozens of search warrants as part of an investigation into money laundering and other crimes at Fashion District businesses. During one of those searches at a downtown condominium linked to the defendants in this case, authorities seized more than $38.3 million in cash.

Operation Tree of Lies and Operation Cai Cai is a joint effort by the Government of Brazil and DHS to combat human smuggling and identity fraud cells that exploit the immigration systems of the U.S. and Brazil by organizing and facilitating the travel of Brazilians posing as family units utilizing legitimate and/or illegitimate travel documents to the U.S.

On Dec. 3, CBP officers at the Ysleta Cargo Facility initially intercepted the shipment of 100,080 3M N95 surgical masks with an MSRP of $600,480. The masks were in-transit at an El Paso bonded warehouse destined to a hospital on the East Coast.

ICE announced the release of dozens of criminal aliens from the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Adelanto, California, in October due to a Central District of California judicial order. Some of those detainees have violated the terms of their release and have already been rearrested by local law enforcement.

Hugo Cristobal Garza-Ornelas, 35, from Mexico went before U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa to admit to possessing the cocaine for further distribution.