ICE deports 142 criminal illegal immigrants from Houston area with nearly 500 prior convictions

According to the agency's release, the individuals removed had a total of 480 illegal entries into the United States and were convicted of 473 crimes, including child sexual abuse, human trafficking, and aggravated assault.

The effort was carried out by ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Houston and targeted individuals with serious criminal records and repeated immigration violations.

“Unfortunately, this is not an anomaly,” said ERO Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford.

“For the past few years, there was virtually no deterrent to illegally entering the country. As a result, millions of illegal aliens poured into the country including violent criminal aliens, child predators, transnational gang members and foreign fugitives.

"Many of these dangerous criminal aliens went on to prey on law-abiding residents in local communities right here in Southeast Texas and we’re laser focused on identifying them and removing them from the country before they harm anyone else," he continued.

The list of deportees includes multiple gang members and individuals with long criminal histories. One of the most frequent offenders was Luis Angel Garcia-Contreras, 40, a known Surenos 13 gang member who had entered the US illegally 21 times and had four convictions for illegal entry.

He was deported on May 29.

Another individual, Inocencio Juan Bustamante-Rodriguez, 35, had entered the US illegally 16 times and been convicted four times of illegal entry and twice of illegal reentry. He was removed on May 28.

Cesar Daniel Lobato Perez, 24, was deported the same day after convictions for arson, aggravated assault, and DWI.

Marco Antonio Salazar-Rojas, 25, had 12 illegal entries and was convicted of human smuggling and narcotics possession.

ICE also reported the removal of individuals convicted of sexual crimes against children, including Benito Charqueno Zavala, 60, convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a child, and Johnny Urbina Carillo, 37, convicted of sexually exploiting a minor and also found guilty of cocaine possession and illegal reentry.

Jorge Arturo Silva-Solano, 35, was deported on May 19. He had illegally entered the country 11 times and faced multiple convictions for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, criminal mischief, trespassing, DWI, and public intoxication.

Also among those deported was Alejandro Aguilar Vazquez, 45, who had illegally crossed the border 19 times. He had been convicted of child cruelty, DWI, and filing a false report.

The 142 individuals removed during the operation had been convicted of a wide range of offenses:

11 convictions for child sex crimes

76 DWI convictions

48 drug trafficking or drug possession offenses

43 aggravated assault or domestic violence charges

30 burglary, larceny, or theft-related convictions

22 convictions for human trafficking or human smuggling

21 weapons offenses

99 for illegal entry or reentry

26 for resisting or evading arrest

14 for fraud or extortion

Additional convictions included trespassing, property crimes, hit-and-run, animal cruelty, child cruelty, money laundering, organized crime, and making terroristic threats

Bradford said the Houston field office remains focused on tracking down and removing criminal aliens before they can commit further crimes in the community.

“This is just a small snapshot of those efforts,” Bradford said, “but it gives you an idea of how big this problem really is.”