U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 646 illegal aliens in the Houston area, including dangerous criminals and gang members, in one of the region’s largest enforcement actions in recent years.
ICE announced that from February 23 to March 2, 646 individuals were arrested for immigration violations.
“In recent years, some of the world’s most dangerous fugitives, transnational gang members, and criminal aliens have taken advantage of the crisis at our nation’s southern border to illegally enter the U.S.,” stated ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford. “After illegally entering the country, many of these criminal aliens have gone on to commit violent crime and reign terror on law-abiding residents.”
The arrests were the result of a collaborative effort involving several agencies, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Diplomatic Security Service, the U.S. Marshals Service, and multiple state and local law enforcement agencies.
Out of those arrested, 543 were criminal aliens, and an additional seven were documented gang members.
The operation also involved executing 71 criminal arrest warrants, which led to the following arrests:
- 140 criminal aliens charged with or convicted of aggravated felonies or other violent offenses, such as homicide, aggravated assault, and family violence.
- 34 criminal aliens charged with or convicted of sex offenses, including aggravated sexual assault of a minor, possession of child pornography, or rape.
- 93 criminal aliens charged with or convicted of driving while intoxicated.
- 52 criminal aliens charged with or convicted of illicit narcotics offenses, including drug trafficking or possession of a controlled substance.
- 51 criminal aliens charged with or convicted of property crimes, such as burglary and theft.
- 38 criminal aliens convicted of firearm offenses, including unlawful carrying of a firearm, being an alien in possession of a firearm, and aggravated assault with a firearm.
Chad Plantz, special agent in charge of ICE Homeland Security Investigations Houston, celebrated the results.
In just one week working alongside our counterparts from federal, state, and local law enforcement, ICE HSI special agents successfully executed 71 criminal arrest warrants and made 554 administrative arrests that included illegally present human smugglers, gang members, human traffickers, child sex offenders, drug traffickers, and weapons traffickers.
In addition to the arrests made during this operation, ICE announced last week that it had arrested nine criminal aliens in the Houston area and detained 20 others at a Spring manufacturing plant for immigration violations found during a work identification audit. Furthermore, in a separate operation on February 25, ICE conducted a significant raid in the Colony Ridge development, resulting in an additional 118 arrests.
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