Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported dozens of illegal-alien murderers and other hardened criminals in December, the latest among them two Mexicans who, like the rest, never should have been in the country.
And another ICE operation, similar to the one that sent three dozen Cambodians back to the land of the Khmer, shows again just how many illegal-alien thugs are in the country. In early December, ICE arrested more than five dozen illegal-alien criminals in a single sweep.
Problem is, ridding the country of this dangerous cohort is akin to ridding the beach of sand. It’s probably impossible.
Mexican Desperados
The more important of the two Mexicans isn’t just notable for the murder he is charged with committing in Mexico. He’s also notable because he’s not run-of-the-mill illegal who crossed the border in the wilderness with other vagabonds.
Rather, ICE reported, he was in the country on a nonimmigrant H2B visa.
An H2B visa “allows U.S. employers or U.S. agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary nonagricultural jobs,” the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website says.
Joe Froyland Garcia Melendez entered the country on September 27.
But back home, ICE reported, “he was the suspect in a double homicide in the city of Victoria in Tamaulipas, Mexico.”
Happily, he was only in the country for one day before ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations squad collared him at work “in Weems, Virginia, on immigration violations because he intended to remain in the U.S. and did not possess the required documents to do so.”
The next day, Mexican authorities charged him with homicide, ICE reported.
An immigration judge ordered him deported on November 20, and ICE agents turned him over to Mexican authorities on December 18.
The lesson: Illegal-alien criminals not only jump the border to sneak into the country, then disappear into the interior, but also apply for and receive visas that permit them to enter the country legally, right under the noses of immigration officials, then take jobs an American citizen could have taken.
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ICE removed the second Mexican, this one wanted for premeditated homicide, on December 19. It offered no details about his entry to the country.
Mass Arrest
ICE took down 63 illegal-alien criminals in early December during a four-day operation: Twenty-two each in Iowa and Minnesota, 14 in Nebraska, four in South Dakota, and one in North Dakota.
Of the 60 men and three women arrested, ICE reported, “47 had criminal convictions…. Of the 16 non-criminal arrests, two had outstanding orders of removal, and four had been previously removed.”
They came from nine countries: three dozen from Mexico, 13 from Guatemala, four from Honduras, two each from El Salvador and Somalia, and one each from Burma, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Gambia, Liberia and Ukraine.
As well, ICE reported, 75 percent had criminal records for “assault, domestic violence, larceny, child abuse, child neglect, drug-related crimes including distribution, fraud, hit and run, prostitution, driving under the influence. Additionally, one violator in Nebraska was a known gang member.”
Seven were immigration fugitives and “16 others illegally re-entered the United States after having been previously deported.” Noted ICE, “depending on an alien’s criminality, an alien who re-enters the United States after having been previously deported commits a felony punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison, if convicted.”
Among the illegal-alien criminals was a Mexican “previously convicted of two felony counts of sexual assault” and a Somalian convicted of felony sexual assault, both of whom await deportation.
Another of the estimable illegal aliens, the gang member in Nebraska, was a member of the satanic MS-13. He too awaits a trip back home where he belongs.
In fiscal 2018, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations collared 158,581 illegals, 66 percent of whom had criminal convictions, 21 percent had pending criminal charges, and three percent had previously issued final orders.
Arrests in fiscal 2018 increased 11 percent over 2017.
Removals increased about 13 percent to 256,086. Fifty-seven percent were convicted criminals, and 5,914 of the removed illegal aliens were either known or suspected gang members or terrorists.
On that last note, as The New American reported on Monday, ICE arrested and deported a Pakistani illegal-alien smuggler. ICE reported that he smuggled upwards of 100 people into the country, several of whom “had suspected ties to terrorist organizations.”
ICE’s website will not be updated during the partial government shutdown.
Image: screenshot from ice.gov/features/ERO-2018
