News Releases and Statements
News Releases and Statements
Individuals who lack a lawful basis to stay in the United States are ordered removed, consistent with U.S. law – all individuals who are removed have been screened for protection concerns.
The 28-year-old Brazilian citizen unlawfully entered the United States some time prior to August 2023. In March 2023, a criminal court in the city of Tarumirim, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, began actively seeking custody of the fugitive on the charge of aggravated murder, a crime he is alleged to have committed in January 2017.
Deportation officers from ERO Baltimore’s Criminal Apprehension Program took the 19-year-old noncitizen into custody at his residence in Hyattsville on Aug. 2 and served him with papers ordering him to appear before an immigration judge.
Edwin Kelly-Espinoza, 21, was flown to Honduras on a flight coordinated by ICE’s Air Operations Unit.
According to court documents, Jose Roman, 43, Marcos Valencia Jr, 32, Ezequil Castro, 37, and Juan Gonzalez, all of Kansas City, Kansas; Manuel Alvarez, 28, of Seneca, Manuel Faudoa, 23, of Dodge City and Gerardo Sierra-Martinez, 21, of Kansas City, Missouri, are charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
Manuel De Jesus Guzman, 19, of Rio Rico, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and Joshua Francisco Mendez, 19, of Tucson, was sentenced to one year and one day to prison; both sentences will be followed by three years of supervised released; Guzman and Mendez pleaded guilty to Smuggling Goods from the United States.
ERO Chicago’s Fugitive Operations Team arrested an unlawfully present Venezuelan national Aug. 8, 2023.
Jeffrey A. Knight, 32, pleaded guilty in federal court Aug. 8 to recording his sexual abuse of a seven-year-old victim and sharing a video of the abuse online.
The HSI C3's Child Exploitation Investigations Unit completed Operation Renewed Hope last week, resulting in the generation of 311 probable identifications of previously unknown victims, including 14 positive contacts and several confirmed victim rescues from active abuse.
A federal grand jury returned seven indictments on April 19 and July 19, and a criminal complaint was issued on Aug. 1 as part of the investigation.
The fossils were recovered through HSI investigations conducted by our offices in Arizona, New York, and Wyoming, and the collection was represented by a tyrannosaurus bataar skull, protoceratops fossil, alioramus skull, and saurolophus skull.
This IFR permits ICE to conduct an entirely electronic transaction with obligors posting bonds online when enrolling in ICE’s electronic bond systems.
Former Maryland youth football coach sentenced to 40 years for producing child sexual abuse material
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.
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