Thread: Feds: 6 illegal immigrants arrested in Bound Brook

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Feds: 6 illegal immigrants arrested in Bound Brook


By CHAD HEMENWAY
Staff Writer

BOUND BROOK -- Six men suspected of being illegal immigrants, including one wanted on rape charges in Costa Rica, have been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

The six were arrested during the early-morning hours of Sept. 28, said Michael Gilhooly, Northeast regional communication director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Saul Hidalgo-Molina, 42, of 24 Fisher Ave., was apprehended about 4:40 a.m., Gilhooly said. Hidlago-Molina was wanted by Interpol on an outstanding warrant for rape issued in February from the town of Perez Zeledon in Costa Rica.

"This is a potentially dangerous man who should not be in this country," Gilhooly said. "We worked with Interpol and Costa Rican authorities to find out where he was so he can answer his charges."

Gilhooly said Hidalgo-Molina, who admitted he was in the United States illegally, will remain in custody until he is extradited to Costa Rica.

Arrests such as this may become more frequent with a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement Fugitive Task Force office that opened two months ago in Newark. The federal agency is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

"Fugitives hiding out in the Garden State should be aware ICE will use all of its resources to identify, target and arrest them," said Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Newark office is the first in New Jersey and part of a nationwide expansion that includes seven new teams from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, Gilhooly said.

"These teams will be in better position to apprehend immigration violators, and these recent arrests shows we're very aggressive when we get good information," Gilhooly said.

In addition to the arrest of Hidalgo-Molina, Luis Alvarez of 50 W. Franklin St. was arrested by immigration and customs agents on an outstanding warrant issued by an immigration judge in Newark who already had ordered Alvarez expelled from the country.

Gilhooly said Alvarez fled while out on bail. Alvarez will remain in custody until he is deported, Gilhooly said.

"He defied a judge's order," Gilhooly said of Alvarez. "This judgment is not an optional. He had due process and ran from us."

Three more men suspected of being illegal immigrants from Guatemala were arrested at 50 W. Franklin St. Each now must face an immigration judge, said Gilhooly, who explained that privacy laws prevent their names from being released.

"They were in the right place at the right time for us," Gilhooly said. "We have to take them in and make sure they get a court date."

Also Thursday morning, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Fugitive Operations Team searched for another wanted Bound Brook man on Talmage Avenue who had defied an immigration judge's order.

The man was not apprehended. Instead, a man using the fugitive's name was arrested on suspicion of immigration violations, Gilhooly said. The wanted man's identity is being withheld to prevent him from fleeing, he said.

By the numbers:

45: number of Fugitive Operations Teams in the U.S.

1,000: illegal aliens apprehended per week by 45 teams

52,000: approximate illegal aliens caught since Fugitive Operations Teams created in 2003.

22,669: illegal alien caught who have convictions for serious crimes like homicide or sexual assault.

3,210: illegal aliens caught in New Jersey since 2003.

2,089: fugitives caught in NJ who defied an immigration judge's order of removal.

18: additional teams planned in 2007.

Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

On the web:

www.ice.gov

Holy you know what! Bound Brook? This is overwhelming!!

New Jersey......WAKE THE HELL UP