Nearly 1,500 arrested in Mass. in US illegally, more than half are ‘significant’ criminals, ICE says

BOSTON — Hundreds of criminals living in Bay State neighborhoods illegally, including several with “significant” criminal histories, were among nearly 1,500 people arrested in Massachusetts in a month-long immigration surge operation, federal officials said Monday.

More than half of the 1,461 people arrested had “significant” criminal convictions or charges who were “roaming free” in Massachusetts, with 790 of those arrested convicted or charged with crimes in the U.S. or abroad, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

They include, among others, a 45-year-old Guatemalan national who is in the country illegally and who has a 2020 conviction for murder in Boston, for which he received a life sentence.

Throughout the month of May, the immigration enforcement operation dubbed “Operation Patriot” cracked down on the worst of criminals living illegally in Massachusetts, officials said.

“A significant amount of the criminal aliens that were arrested by the teams were drug traffickers, sex offenders, murderers and foreign fugitives trying to evade justice in their home countries,” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told reporters during a press conference on Monday.

“It’s long past time to remove these dangerous criminals from our communities,” Lyons said. “What we need to do is prevent them from terrorizing family, friends and our neighbors.”

Lyons doubled down on so-called sanctuary city policies in several Massachusetts communities that are thwarting public safety initiatives by his agency.

He said ICE and its federal law enforcement partners made many of the arrests after local jurisdictions refused to honor immigration detainer requests to turn over the offenders and instead chose to release them from custody, forcing officers and agents to make at-large arrests in Massachusetts communities.

“If sanctuary cities would change their policies and turn these violent criminal aliens over to us, into our custody, instead of releasing them into the public, we would not have to go out into the communities and do this,” Lyons said.

“Boston is my hometown, and it really shocks me that officials all over Massachusetts would rather release sex offenders, fentanyl dealers, drug dealers, human traffickers and child rapists back into the neighborhoods,” Lyons said.

“It should be public safety all around,” Lyons said.

The month-long surge operation included officers from ICE Boston partnered with the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the ATF, the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Coast Guard.

U.S. Attorney Leah Foley and ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde both said Massachusetts is safer following the recent arrests.

“Make no mistake: Every person that we arrested was breaking our immigration laws, but most of these individuals had significant criminality,” Hyde said.

“They are criminal offenders who victimized innocent people and traumatized entire communities — murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, child sex predators and members of violent transnational criminal gangs,“ Hyde said.

”Some were convicted of violent crimes in the United States, and others were wanted for criminality in their native countries,“ Hyde said. ”All made the mistake of attempting to subvert justice by hiding out in Massachusetts.”

Foley said those arrested include people “who pumped deadly narcotics into our neighborhoods,” trafficked firearms for transnational organizations, defrauded government benefit programs and, in some cases, preyed on vulnerable children.

“These are defendants who didn’t simply cross a border, they crossed a line and jeopardized the safety of Massachusetts communities,” Foley told reporters.

“When someone who is here illegally chooses to engage in crime, when they bring fentanyl into our neighborhoods, sell firearms to gangs or assume false identities to collect benefits intended for vulnerable Americans, these are not immigrants. They are criminals and they will be treated as such.”

“This is about public safety, plain and simple,” Foley said. “Our job is to protect the public, to prevent harm and to uphold the rule of law.”

Foley said her office will continue to prioritize prosecuting people who are in the U.S. unlawfully and those who pose a threat to communities.

“If you threaten the safety our our residents, we will find you. We will hold you accountable and when appropriate, we will remove you from this country,” Foley said. “This is the land of opportunity, not the land for opportunists. Enough is enough.”

Throughout the duration of Operation Patriot, ICE and its federal law enforcement partners targeted “egregious criminal alien offenders” including transnational criminal organizations known to operate in and around Boston and throughout Massachusetts.

These organizations include the notorious MS-13, Tren de Aragua, Trinitarios and 18th Street gangs.

“This was a massive, multiagency immigration enforcement operation aimed at keeping our region safe from habitual lawbreakers who have flouted our country’s immigration laws and, in many cases, committed violent crimes that have endangered our families, friends, and neighbors for far too long,” said FBI Boston acting Special Agent in Charge Kimberly Milka.

“Together, with our partners, we have identified and removed hundreds of illegal alien offenders from the Commonwealth, including murderers, gang members, child predators and a possible associate of a suspected terrorist, and our work is not done,” Milka said.

ICE and its federal law enforcement partners prosecuted numerous targets who had foreign arrest warrants and Interpol Red Notices, apprehending criminal alien offenders wanted by authorities in several foreign countries.

“Over the past month, CBP has worked diligently alongside our federal law enforcement partners to apprehended criminal aliens illegally present in our country,” said Jennifer De La O, director of field operations for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Boston.

“CBP is unwavering in our commitment to protect the American people and make our country safer,” De La O said. “We will continue to ensure that all criminal aliens that violate our laws are taken into custody and removed.”

Among the alien offenders apprehended during Operation Patriot, 277 had been previously ordered removed from the United States by a Justice Department immigration judge. However, they refused to comply with the removal order and remained in the country illegally.

During the operation, ICE employed expanded immigration enforcement tactics, which included simultaneous operations on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, where they arrested around 40 illegal aliens, including at least one child sex predator and a member of a violent transnational gang.

The U.S. Coast Guard assisted ICE with the safe transport of the aliens from the islands, officials said.

ICE officials said those arrested during Operation Patriot include:

• An illegally present 55-year-old Salvadoran national with an active Interpol Red Notice for aggravated homicide, robbery, aggravated kidnap and theft in El Salvador. ICE officers arrested him in Lynn.
• An illegally present 32-year-old Guatemalan national and registered sex offender who is pending criminal charges in Boston for five counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over and trafficking a person for sexual servitude. He was also arrested in Roxbury for aggravated rape of child with a 10-year age gap and indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over. ICE lodged two detainers that local jurisdictions refused to honor.
• An illegally present 37-year-old Honduran national whose most recent arrest in Fall River was for rape, indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over, witness intimidation, and kidnapping of a minor by relative. He has other arrests in Massachusetts for lewd and lascivious conduct and sexual conduct for fee. He also has several convictions in Massachusetts for operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol. Additionally, he has been convicted for operating under the influence of alcohol and operating while intoxicated in Iowa, where he served a year prison.
• An illegally present 22-year-old Colombian national charged with breaking and entering building during the daytime for a felony, kidnapping, aggravated rape, and indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over. Local authorities released him back into the community despite an ICE immigration detainer being in place.
• An illegally present 39-year-old Honduran national who has convictions in Lynn for obscene material to a minor, enticing a child under 16 and attempt to commit crime. Additionally, he has convictions in Stoughton for larceny and larceny from a person over 60 and disabled.
• An illegally present 45-year-old Guatemalan national who has a 2020 conviction for murder in Boston, for which he received a life sentence.
• An illegally present 29-year-old Brazilian national charged in Edgartown with aggravated rape of a child by force, possession of child pornography and dissemination of obscene material. He has and additional arrest in Edgartown for assault and battery (family) and kidnapping.
• An illegally present 48-year-old Salvadoran national whose criminal history includes charges of aggravated rape of child by force, indecent assault and battery on a person under 14, and open and gross lewdness.
• An illegally present Ecuadoran national who has a 2018 conviction for soliciting to commit murder. He was sentenced to a year in prison and released back into the community despite the presence of an ICE immigration detainer. ICE officers arrested him in Brockton.
• An illegally present a Colombian national who was convicted in his native country for trafficking/manufacturing/carrying narcotics. Colombian authorities are currently seeking his custody to serve his sentence of 14 years in prison.
• An illegally present 40-year-old Guatemalan national charged with assault and battery dangerous weapon (a hammer), threatening to commit crime, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a vehicle), assault and battery on a family member, strangulation/suffocation and intimidation of witness. ICE officers arrested him in Lynn.
• An illegally present 69-year-old registered sex offender and citizen of Uruguay convicted of indecent assault and battery on a 7-year-old girl.
• An illegally present 32-year-old citizen of Brazil who has an active Interpol Red Notice from Brazil for drug trafficking and drug trafficking association. In an effort to avoid apprehension in his native country, he fled on a motorcycle from Brazilian military police and threw a brick of cocaine at them.
• An illegally present 24-year-old citizen of Brazil who has an active Interpol Red Notice out of Brazil, where he is wanted for murder.

Foley added Monday that her office will also prosecute anyone who assaults law enforcement officers or interferes with ICE officers who are doing their job.

Assaults against ICE officers are up 400 percent since this time period last year, Lyons said late last month.

“We will not tolerate anyone who impedes or obstructs ICE operations,” Foley said. “What I have seen on the news and in social media is concerning, to say the least.”

Her comments came weeks after reported assaults on law enforcement officers in a Worcester neighborhood on May 8.

In May, the city of Worcester released body camera footage after chaos erupted when a crowd surrounded and assaulted police officers trying to detain Brazilian national Rosane Ferreira de Oliveira, 40, who is in the country illegally and faces previous criminal assault charges, federal authorities said.

“Agent safety is paramount and it is a felony to threaten or assault a federal agent. I want to be clear about that,” Foley said Monday. “No one is above the law. This is non-negotiable. The law in this area is clear and I will not sit idly by and watch federal agents being threatened.”

All of the people arrested during Operation Patriot will remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of their removal proceedings or their deportation from the United States, officials said.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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