Alien sweep nets vicious felon among 150 caught
By Casey Ross
Boston Herald Reporter
Thursday, June 15, 2006 - Updated: 04:14 AM EST

http://news.bostonherald.com/immigratio ... eid=143786

A federal immigration crackdown has netted 150 illegal aliens across New England, including a Salvadoran gangbanger who was convicted of viciously attacking a Chelsea boy and then hiding from deportation in plain sight - at a Budget Rent-A-Car.
The arrest of Franklin Ademir Rodriguez at Logan Airport’s Budget rental office was among the highest-profile apprehensions in an operation that swept the country in search of illegal alien felons, officials said.
Rodriguez, a 25-year-old member of deadly Salvadoran gang MS-13, was among thousands of illegal aliens who have had extensive contacts with law enforcement but managed to slip through cracks authorities are desperately trying to close.


“We will no longer allow the interior of the United States to be a haven for illegal aliens,” said Bruce Chadbourne, director of the New England field office for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But he and other officials acknowledged that the 2,100 arrests made in the latest crackdown - including 103 in Massachusetts - represent only a fraction of the illegal alien fugitives living and working in the United States.
ICE officials estimate that more than 590,000 illegal aliens are currently fugitives from the immigration system, a number that is increasing at a rate of more than 40,000 per year.
Chadbourne said this month’s campaign, dubbed “Operation Return to Sender,” was the agency’s largest-ever sweep directed at previously deported aliens who re-entered the country.
Of the 150 arrested in New England, 75 had been previously ejected from the country, while 60 were wanted for crimes including sexual assault, kidnapping and assault on a police officer, officials said. The other 15 illegal aliens arrested were not wanted for crimes but were encountered by agents during the crackdown.
Rodriguez, one of two reputed MS-13 gang members taken into custody, was known to police because of his involvement in the brutal beating of Edwin Molina, a 13-year-old Chelsea boy who was paralyzed after being stabbed 14 times by about a dozen gang members.
Despite the severity of the crime and his illegal status in the country, Rodriguez was able to escape deportation and score a job at the Logan Airport Budget. Attempts to reach company officials for comment last night were unsuccessful.
The other MS-13 gang member arrested was Samuel Gil Martinez, a 24-year-old Salvadoran national who was convicted of two separate assaults - one in which he beat someone with a bat and another in which he attacked an individual with “The Club” automobile lock, officials said.
He was arrested at an address on Brighton Avenue on June 8.

cross@bostonherald.com.