ICE Exposes “Grave Consequences of Sanctuary Policies” Arresting 1,400 Criminal Aliens in 3 Weeks

As the mainstream media continues to ignore the benefits of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, federal agents keep arresting murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, gang members, and child sex predators welcomed into the United States or released from local jails under Biden. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is making it easy to cover these important operations by spoon feeding reluctant news organizations detailed information about the perpetrators, complete with criminal records and mug shots though the establishment press focuses solely on the suffering that deportations are causing in migrant communities throughout the country. The reality is that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is making communities throughout America safer by ridding them of heinous criminals protected under the previous administration and by local governments that offer illegal aliens sanctuary.

In one of the agency’s most recent operations, over 1,400 criminal aliens were arrested in just three weeks in September. They were all rounded up in Massachusetts, a state that has long offered illegal immigrants sanctuary and forbids local law enforcement agencies from assisting or cooperating with federal immigration authorities. More than 600 of the migrants arrested have significant criminal convictions or criminal charges for crimes committed in the U.S. or are known foreign fugitives. Some are members of the famously violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Tren de Aragua and 18th Street gangs. David Wesling, the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) director in Boston that spearheaded the recent operation confirms that the illegal aliens had “significant criminality in the United States or abroad.” Wesling explains that the effort nabbed “criminal offenders who victimized innocent people and traumatized entire communities—murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, child sex predators and members of violent transnational criminal gangs.” He adds that “all made the mistake of attempting to undermine U.S. immigration law by hiding out in Massachusetts.”

The arrested include a 53-year-old man, Jose Orellana-Pena, from El Salvador with rape, assault, and battery convictions. A 34-year-old from India, Raj Kumar Sah, has been charged with enticement of a child to engage in prostitution/human trafficking or commercial sex and assault and battery on a person over 14. A 24-year-old Guatemalan, Anderson Hernandez-Vasquez, was convicted of raping a child and served a two-year sentence in Woburn before being released back into the community instead of being deported. A 47-year-old from El Salvador, Mauricio Eguizabal-Ovalle, has been charged with seven counts of assault and battery, three counts of statutory rape and six counts of assault and battery on a child under 14. Manuel Antonio Rivera-Eraso, a 35-year-old Honduran, has been charged with four counts of rape of a child and possession of child pornography as well as indecent assault and battery on a child. A 65-year-old from Laos, Souvanheuang Phachansiri, was convicted of second-degree murder and kidnapping and 21-year-old Guatemalan Perfecto Nolasco-Lopez has convictions for assault and battery on a child, strangulation/suffocation, and kidnapping.

The September Massachusetts operation exposed the grave consequences of sanctuary policies and the urgent need for local leaders to prioritize the safety of their residents over politics, according to ICE Director Todd M. Lyons. “Every illegal alien we arrested during the operation was breaking U.S. immigration law, and hundreds were violent criminals who should never have been allowed to roam freely in our communities,” Lyons said. “Local law enforcement agencies released them instead of handing them over to us in a secure environment, and this puts neighborhoods, law enforcement officers and illegal aliens at risk.” The ICE chief called on local politicians to step up and end “irresponsible sanctuary policies” that clearly endanger communities.

Just weeks ago, ICE arrested dozens of illegal immigrants with felony convictions in Connecticut, another blue state that also bans local police from cooperating with federal authorities to remove criminal aliens. In just four days federal agents apprehended 65 illegal aliens, nearly half of them convicted or charged in the U.S. with serious felonies, including kidnapping, assault, drug offenses, weapons violations, and sex crimes. Others were identified as members of transnational gangs or had criminal histories in their native countries. Among them were men convicted of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, sexual assault, drug, and cocaine possession, carrying a prohibited weapon, cruelty toward a child and reckless endangerment.