ICE arrested 308 illegal migrants — including attempted murderer and a child molester —on Trump’s first full day in office
ICE arrested 308 illegal migrants, including an attempted murderer and a child molester, on President Trump’s first full day in office Tuesday, The Post has learned.
The Jan. 21 coast-to-coast raids — a multi-agency effort led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — brought the hammer down on criminal migrants in and around sanctuary cities including Denver, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, Baltimore and Miami, a senior Trump administration official said.
ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division (ERO) took Jose Barco-Chirino, a Venezuelan national, into custody at Colorado State Prison in Canon City, Colo., where he was serving time after being convicted of attempted murder, extreme indifference and felony menacing with a real or simulated weapon.
He will remain in ICE custody until an immigration judge can rule on deportation proceedings.
ERO busted Miguel Andres-Mateo, 20, from Guatemala, in Cornelia, Georgia, outside Atlanta. Andres-Mateo had previously been convicted for driving under the influence, and was previously ordered removed from the US in 2014 by an immigration judge. He, too, will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the country.
In Philadelphia, ICE nabbed Kodir Mazhidov, a 22-year-old Tajikistan citizen, who was detained after violating the terms of his release from the immigration agency’s custody. On Dec. 29 of last year, Philly cops arrested Mazhidov for crimes including reckless endangering another person, fleeing or attempting to elude an officer and reckless driving.
Authorities in Seattle arrested Mexican national Victorino Gaytan-Hernandez, who was convicted for sexual abuse of a minor. He was in the country illegally and will be held in ICE custody until his deportation.
In Miami, ICE arrested six illegal aliens from Guatemala who were living in Martin County, Fla. who had lengthy rap sheets including battery, child abuse, fraud, resisting arrest, DWI, trespassing and vandalism. They were detained as threats to public safety and for violating the terms of their release.
The arrests are just the start of the mass deportations promised on the campaign trail by President Trump, to be overseen by newly anointed border czar Tom Homan.
Homan praised the agencies for their efforts, but said that some 700,000 illegal migrants who pose threats to “public safety” are still freely roaming the country.
“ICE is doing their job,” Homan told Fox News on Wednesday.
Homan has vowed to restart immigration raids under Trump, including in sanctuary cities.
In an earlier interview with The Post, Homan emphasized that even without the help of sanctuary city and state leaders, the feds would still “wait ’til they get out of jail, then we’ll go out into the neighborhoods and get them.”
Homan has said that ICE officers have compiled a “target sheet” of the illegal migrants with criminal records who they’re looking to arrest and deport.
“So, they’re out there right now looking for the most serious public safety threats and throughout the country, we’re putting them back to work,” Homan said of ICE
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is taking measures to seal off the southern border from illegal crossings.
Border agents have been barred from releasing illegal migrants into the country, forcing them to hold and deport border crossers, Homeland Security sources told The Post
Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to deploy 1,500 additional active-duty troops to the southern border.
