ICE Arrests 59 Immigration Fugitives In 5-Day Sweep
Operation Nets 20 Suspects With Criminal Convictions

POSTED: 4:23 pm MDT September 18, 2008
UPDATED: 6:37 pm MDT September 18, 2008


DENVER -- Agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 59 fugitives and immigration violators throughout the state in a five-day sweep that ended Tuesday, federal officials announced Thursday.

Of the 59 who were arrested, 20 had criminal convictions, including sexual assault of a child, car theft and resisting arrest, ICE said.

Thirty in the group were fugitives targeted by ICE because they already had final orders of deportation and the other 29 were immigration violators who agents encountered while making their arrests, ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said.

The enforcement sweep began on Sept. 12, the same day that Gov. Bill Ritter called for a review of gaps in immigration enforcement following a fatal crash at an ice cream shop involving an illegal immigrant. Police soon discovered that Francis Hernandez, a Guatemalan native who has been charged with causing the fatal crash, had been arrested 16 times in five years but was never deported.

During the five-day operation, the two local ICE Fugitive Operations Teams targeted fugitives in 14 Colorado cities, including Aurora, Aspen, Basalt, Canyon City, Carbondale, Colorado Springs, Cortez, Craig, Denver, Durango, El Jebel, Glenwood Springs, Pueblo and Thornton.

The team looked for "fugitive aliens" who are illegal immigrants who fail to appear for their immigration hearings, or flee after a federal immigration judge orders they leave the country.

ICE gave profiles of the four criminals who were among the arrests:

Ivan Eduardo Rodriguez Hernandez, from Mexico, was arrested by ICE agents with his brother Sept. 16 in Denver after he was referred by the Denver County District Attorney's Office. He was convicted of sexual assault June 2. He was sentenced to 10 years probation, and required to register as a sex offender. He has previous arrests for vehicle theft, disorderly conduct and traffic violations. He is in ICE custody and being held without bond as he awaits his immigration hearing.

Fernando Rios Miramontes, from Mexico, was arrested Sept. 15 in Denver. He overstayed his visitor visa and has a nationwide warrant for his arrest for sexually assaulting a child by a person in a position of trust. He was on the Garfield County Sheriff's Office's Most Wanted list. After ICE fingerprinted him, he was turned over to the Denver Police Department on the outstanding warrant. ICE agents also placed a detainer on him, if he is released by Denver.

Christian Daniel Sabido Yberri, from Mexico, was arrested Sept. 12 in Cortez, Colo. He has an outstanding order of deportation. He has an extensive criminal history showing multiple arrests and convictions both as a juvenile and as an adult. He is currently in ICE custody pending his deportation.

Jose Rodriguez Hernandez, from Mexico, was arrested Sept. 16 in Denver. He was apprehended with his brother Ivan Eduardo Rodriguez Hernandez. He was convicted Jan. 31, 2007, for aggravated motor vehicle theft and sentenced to 45 days in jail and one year probation. He is in ICE custody and being held without bond as he awaits his immigration hearing.


"Our ICE Fugitive Operations Teams remove criminal aliens from the streets, and they also help maintain the integrity of the immigration system," said John Longshore, field office director for the ICE Office of Detention and Removal Operations in Denver. "ICE uses all the tools and resources at our disposal to locate fugitives who show a blatant disregard for our nation's immigration laws."

ICE's statement seems to be a direct response to criticisms by the governor and local leaders following the ice cream shop crash, which killed a 3-year-old boy and two women.

"Immigration enforcement is ultimately the responsibility of the federal government, and clearly, Washington has failed to fix a broken system," Ritter had said, when calling for the review.

Both Aurora police and the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office, as well as other local law-enforcement officials, expressed frustration when dealing with ICE. They say they notify federal authorities about suspected illegal immigrants in their jails but no action is taken.

Many ICE Arrests Are 'Fugitive Aliens'

During the first 11 months of fiscal year 2008, which began Oct. 1, 2007, the ICE Fugitive Operations Teams operating in Colorado and Wyoming made 489 arrests. Of the total, 405 were fugitive aliens who had failed to comply with their outstanding deportation orders while 84 were immigration violators who the ICE Fugitive Operations Teams encountered during their targeted arrests.

ICE established its National Fugitive Operations Program (NFOP) in 2003 to eliminate the nation's backlog of immigration fugitives and ensure that deportation orders handed down by immigration judges are enforced. Today, ICE has 95 Fugitive Operations Teams deployed across the country. Another Colorado Fugitive Operations Team is scheduled to open in Colorado Springs by the end of the year.

So far this year, ICE's NFOP has made more than 30,000 arrests nationwide, which included more than 23,000 fugitives. And, in 2007 and for the first time in history, the nation's fugitive alien population declined and continues to do so, in large part because of the work of the NFOP, ICE said.

Estimates now place the number of immigration fugitives in the United States at about 570,000, a decrease of nearly 25,000 since October 2007.

Additional Resources:
Colorado Department of Public Safety
Immigration and Customs Enforcement


http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/17 ... etail.html