Tulsa ERO tallies over one hundred criminal alien arrests in 2012

Tue, 2013-02-26 09:15 AM
By: Mark Rockwell
Government Security News
gsnmagazine.com

Over one hundred criminal aliens were arrested by ICE’s Tulsa, OK, office during calendar year 2012, including previously-deported individuals convicted of murder, assault and other serious offenses.

Of the 116 criminal aliens arrested in 2012 by the Tulsa-based Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), 34 have convictions for violent crimes, like molestation, rape, child abuse, assault with a dangerous weapon, and attempted kidnapping, said ICE. Because of their serious criminal histories and prior immigration arrest records, seven of those arrested were federally prosecuted for illegally re-entering the U.S. after being formally deported. Those seven, said ICE, have since been convicted and were sentenced to an average two-year term of imprisonment, it said.

Summing its fiscal 2012 operations on Feb. 22, ICE’s Tulsa office said 15 women and 101 men were arrested in the Tulsa area. The arrests covered a swath of towns near Tulsa, including Muskogee, Miami and Enid. The bulk -- 44 -- of the arrests, however, were made in Tulsa, according to ICE, with the remainder spread among more than two dozen other towns. ICE said the nationalities of those arrested included individuals from Mexico (102), Guatemala (2), Iran (2), USSR (2), Czech Republic (1), El Salvador (1), Federated States of Micronesia (1), Honduras (1), Kenya (1), Pakistan (1) South Korea (1) and Uganda (1).

Among the arrests were a 41-year-old Mexican man arrested in Muskogee who had an extensive criminal history including convictions for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, altering a firearm serial number, domestic assault and battery in presence of a minor, and unlawfully possessing a controlled drug with intent to distribute. He was deported Dec. 1.

Another 44-year-old Mexican man, arrested Tahlequah, OK, had been deported twice. In the late 1980s, ICE said he began building an extensive history of arrests and or convictions to include second-degree murder, manslaughter, forgery, battery, aggravated assault, possessing methamphetamine, domestic battery, possessing cocaine, possessing drug paraphernalia, obstructing government operations, and possessing a false alien registration form. After being arrested by ERO Tulsa officers, he was prosecuted for illegally re-entering the United States and sentenced to four years in federal prison. He will again be deported after he completes his prison term.

"Our ERO officers positively impact public safety of communities in Oklahoma and nationwide when we remove criminal aliens from the streets, and ultimately from the country," said Simona L. Flores, field office director of ERO Dallas. "This is a vital mission that we take very seriously." Flores oversees the state of Oklahoma and 128 counties in north Texas.

ICE’s Tulsa office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) was established in 2008 as part of an initiative to reduce the fugitive alien population in the United States, which later included previously removed aliens and removable aliens convicted of a crime. ERO’s Fugitive Operations Team located in Tulsa is one of 104 such teams that prioritizes its resources to focus on aliens who pose a serious threat to national security or public safety, including members of transnational street gangs, child sex offenders, and aliens with prior convictions for violent crimes.

Aliens who have outstanding orders of deportation, or who illegally re-enter the United States after being deported, are subject to immediate deportation after they complete any prison sentences awarded after their criminal convictions, said ICE. The other aliens arrested by Tulsa’s ERO officers in 2012 were entered into removal proceedings, or are currently pending travel arrangements for removal in the near future, it said.

http://www.gsnmagazine.com/node/28620?c=border_security