12/29/2020




ICE removes Mexican man convicted of kidnapping in Oregon




Criminal alien also convicted of assault



PORTLAND – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers removed a Mexican man living in Oregon, Tuesday, who was convicted of a 2018 kidnapping.

On Oct. 4, 2018, Gerardo Muniz-Vazquez, 28, was convicted in the Umatilla County Circuit Court for kidnapping and assault and sentenced to 34 months confinement.

On Nov. 5, 2018, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers encountered Muniz-Vazquez at the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) and lodged an immigration detainer with the jail.

ICE lodges immigration detainers on individuals, such as Muniz-Vazquez, who have been arrested on local criminal charges and who are suspected of being removable, so that ICE can take custody of that person when he or she is released from local custody.

On Nov. 19, Muniz-Vazquez was released from the ODOC, transferred to ICE custody and housed at the Northwest ICE Processing Center pending immigration proceedings.

“The safe and secure transfer of this convicted kidnapper is an excellent example of how law enforcement partnerships should work,” said ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Seattle Field Office Director Nathalie Asher. “By honoring ICE’s immigration detainer, and safely transferring custody of this convicted criminal alien, our law enforcement partners have prevented an at large arrest and the unnecessary increased risk that comes along with it.”

On Dec 17, an immigration judge ordered Muniz-Vazquez removed from the United States.
Muniz-Vazquez was removed from the U.S. via an ICE Air Operations charter flight and transferred to the custody of Mexican authorities.

ICE is charged with enforcing federal immigration laws enacted by Congress. ICE officers are sworn law enforcement officers who carry out the arrest, detention and removal of aliens found to be in the U.S. unlawfully.

Aliens processed for removal may receive their legal due process from federal immigration judges in the immigration courts, which are administered by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). EOIR is an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice and is separate from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE. Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case.

ICE officers carry out the removal decisions made by the federal immigration judges. For more information on EOIR, visit: https://www.justice.gov/eoir/.



https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ic...napping-oregon