News Releases and Statements

Moshe Michael Imel, 53 of Owings, received the 40-year prison sentence Aug. 3 for two counts of production of child pornography involving two minor victims.

A Joint Fentanyl Impact Team investigation into suspicious activity led authorities to execute a search warrant around 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 2 in the Kansas city of Pittsburg.

Elexis Kiera Sidney, 29, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to serve a total of 480 months in federal prison for the sexual exploitation of a child, distributing child pornography, receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

The efforts targeted noncitizens residing in Mississippi who have public safety arrests or convictions and those with a final order of removal and no pending appeals.

While FERM initially began in four locations, DHS is quickly expanding to cities across the country and is removing families who are determined to be ineligible for relief and are ordered removed through this non-detained enforcement process.

A judge sentenced Angel Daniel Miranda-Contreras, 29, of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, to 41 months in prison during the last week of July. Miranda-Contreras was found guilty of attempting to smuggle drugs into the United States following an HSI Arizona probe. He pleaded guilty to importation of fentanyl, importation of heroin, importation of methamphetamine and importation of cocaine on April 10.

HSI San Diego, the FBI’s San Diego Field Office and the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force, in partnership with state and local agencies, identified and located 15 victims of sex trafficking during Operation Cross Country, a nationwide enforcement campaign.

HSI Phoenix and other law enforcement agencies identified and located five minor sex trafficking victims as part of Operation Cross Country, a nationwide enforcement campaign. During the operation, authorities arrested one alleged trafficker and 31 additional subjects for allegedly attempting to have sexual contact with minors.

On Aug. 2, ERO Baltimore apprehended a Nigerian national who has been convicted of rape in the second degree and a third-degree sex offense against a Maryland minor. Deportation officers from ERO Baltimore’s Criminal Apprehension Program took the 37-year-old noncitizen into custody outside his residence in Lanham.

ERO Boston apprehended a noncitizen native of the United Kingdom and member of a transnational criminal organization known as the Traveling Conman Fraud Group on July 24.

U.S. Chief District Judge Beth Phillips sentenced Jarrett Lee Vann, 49, to 35 years in federal prison without parole and a lifetime of supervised release following his incarceration.

Charles Lee Smith, 55, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to 10 years in federal prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release for conspiracy to transport unlawfully present noncitizens.

On July 26, a federal jury in the Northern District of Georgia convicted Mezemr Abebe Belayneh, 67, of Snellville, Georgia, of fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship by lying about his role in persecuting teenagers in Ethiopia for their political opinions.

Hugo Medina, 40, of Del Rio, was sentenced Aug. 1 to 57 months in prison.

A judge sentenced Andrew Carrillo, 30, of Von Army, Texas, to 18 years in federal prison on Aug. 2 for one count of conspiracy to kidnap and one count of conspiracy to transport noncitizens resulting in serious bodily injury.

This policy applies to all noncitizens regardless of nationality to ensure the orderly and humane processing, transfer, and removal of single adults, family units, and others determined to be removeable.

Deportation officers arrested the 35-year-old Brazilian national in Medford following notification that she is a foreign fugitive.

ERO New York City removed Jorge Enrique Mogrovejo, an unlawfully present noncitizen wanted in Ecuador for the rape of a minor on July 13.

The noncitizen, who first entered the United States unlawfully in August 2003, has a 20-year criminal history that includes convictions for disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, illegal reentry and criminal trespassing.

Chief District Court Judge Peter Welte sentenced Daniel Vivas Ceron, 42, of Colombia, to 27 years of imprisonment followed by five years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $11,048.43 in restitution for his role in a fentanyl distribution operation originating in a Canadian prison.

ICE announced today THS for single adults, family units, and children. The new standards outline the requirements for housing noncitizens at temporary stay site for 72 hours or less. The THS are broadly modeled after ICE’s national detention standards, however they are tailored to the context and limitations of a hotel setting.

DHS' ICE and CBP facilitated the recent removal of family units to Central America as part of dozens of other routine ICE removal flights conducted throughout the hemisphere and around the world.

Varfley Dolleh, 56, was flown to Liberia on June 21, via a flight coordinated by ICE’s Air Operations Unit.

The new charges were filed against Erminia Serrano Piedra aka Irma aka Boss Lady, 32, of Elgin, Texas; Oscar Angel Monroy Alcibar aka Pelon, 40, also of Elgin; Pedro Hairo Abrigo, 34, of Killeen, Texas; and Juan Diego Martinez-Rodriguez aka Gavilan, 38, of Dale, Texas.

The Charles County Sheriff’s Office used updated DNA diagnostic techniques to identify Andre Taylor, 63, of Washington, D.C., as a suspect in Belk’s murder. HSI Baltimore provided the expertise and resources necessary to locate and apprehend Taylor.