(The Center Square) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Houston arrested nearly 3,600 illegal foreign nationals during the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.
From Oct. 1 through Nov. 12, they arrested 3,593 foreign nationals with extensive criminal histories.
Among them were 67 sex offenders, 51 child predators, 13 murderers, 10 wanted fugitives and 23 gang members, including an MS-13 gang member who after he was released into the U.S. by the Biden administration allegedly committed a triple homicide in Dallas.
Their combined criminal convictions include DWIs (366), aggravated assault (261), burglary or theft (103), weapons offenses (46), aggravated kidnapping, drug and human trafficking and smuggling, making terroristic threats, evading and resisting arrest, prostitution, hit-and-run, bribery, auto theft, forgery, falsifying documents, trespassing, arson, violent sexual assaults, multiple aggravated child sex crimes, among others.
Many were previously deported multiple times and illegally reentered the U.S. multiple times, ICE said.
“Our entire team understands how critical ICE’s mission is to public safety and national security, and despite many of them going without pay, they continued to show up every day and give everything they had to protect this community from dangerous criminal illegal alien gang members, child predators, murderers and rapists,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operation Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford said. “As a result of those efforts, 51 dangerous child predators are no longer free to prey on our children, 10 fugitives have been apprehended and will now face justice for their alleged offenses, and thousands of other violent criminal aliens have been removed from local communities throughout Southeast Texas and will be removed from the United States.”
ICE highlighted examples of the worst offenders, including a Honduran national and MS-13 gang member who was released into the U.S. by the Biden administration. Once in the U.S., he allegedly committed a triple homicide in Dallas County last April.
Another MS-13 gang member was arrested after illegally entering the U.S. eight times. His convictions include alien smuggling and illegal entry.
ICE highlighted examples of Biden administration policies that allowed criminals to remain in the U.S. instead of being deported.
In one case, ICE officers encountered a Mexican national and twice deported convicted rapist in September 2023, but “were unable to take him into custody or remove him from the country” because of a directive issued by former Acting ICE director Tae Johnson, ICE said. Johnson’s directive ordered ICE officers not to enforce federal immigration law prompting Texas sheriffs and the Federal Police Foundation to sue, The Center Square reported.
The policy prevented his deportation and he “went on to rape and assault a woman just one month later,” ICE said. He was convicted of sexual assault and aggravated assault last August. His criminal history includes convictions for drug possession, obstructing law enforcement, DWI and making false statements to law enforcement.
In another case, a Mexican national and convicted child predator who was previously deported four times was arrested by Edinburg Police officers in south Texas, “but no action was taken” by ICE because of the policy, ICE said. As a result, he remained in the U.S. illegally “and would go on to prey on an innocent child leading to his conviction for sexual indecency with a child” in January, ICE said. ICE has since deported him.
In another case, after a Mexican national illegally entered the U.S., the Biden administration released him and he went on to “prey on an innocent child and was convicted of sexual indecency with a child” in May 2022, ICE said. ICE has since deported him.
In another case, a Mexican national and child predator who illegally entered the U.S. seven times wasn’t deported. His convictions include multiple child sex crimes, aggravated assault with a weapon, and illegal entry. He has since been deported.
Examples of fugitives ICE arrested include a previously deported Mexican national wanted for homicide in Harris County; a Venezuelan who illegally entered the U.S. and was granted parole by the Biden administration and went on to illegally practice dentistry in Harris County; Honduran men wanted for homicide by Honduran officials, among others.
ICE is also encouraging members of the public to report crime and suspicious activity by calling 866-347-2423 or completing an online tip form.
