ICE Washington DC warned it’s taking the immigration enforcement mission in D.C. and Virginia “extremely seriously.”
That statement came along with the announcement that seven illegal aliens were arrested in Northern Virginia on Feb. 5 during a joint effort between the Washington DC divisions of ICE and the FBI in Annadale.
Information from ICE show that one of those arrested in Annadale was previously deported, a 51-year-old Mexican national convicted of DWI in Prince William last April.
One, a 22-year-old Salvadoran, had been apprehended before for illegally entering the U.S. in June 2019. And a 36-year-old Nicaraguan refused to leave the U.S. after being ordered to by a Department of Justice immigration judge on January 24, ICE reported.
A 32-year-old Guatemalan who entered the U.S. legally but violated the terms of his admission was arrested, ICE said.
And the other three were individuals who entered the U.S. illegally, according to ICE, but they had no previous encounters with ICE or any reported criminal convictions.
According to ICE, these arrests came during “a routine enforcement operation.”
“These seven individuals were in the Northern Virginia area in violation of U.S. immigration laws,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Washington, D.C. acting Field Office Director Patrick Divver.
The aforementioned arrests came two days after Eliseo Garcia-Gordillo, a 43-year-old Honduran was sentenced to 2 years in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria for illegally reentering the United States after deportation and failing to register as a sex offender, ICE also reported.
Garcia-Gordillo had previously been arrested three times, was removed from the U.S., and was found arrested again in Prince William County Oct. 8, 2024, ICE stated.
In June 2019, Garcia-Gordillo was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual battery of a victim under 13 in Prince William County and was required to register on the offender list quarterly for the rest of his life, said ICE.
“Not only did Eliseo Garcia-Gordillo display a blatant disregard for our immigration laws, but he also sexually abused a minor victim in Virginia,” said Divver.
“Garcia-Gordillo has proven to be a significant threat to our Virginia neighborhoods. ICE Washington, D.C., will not tolerate such threats to the residents of our communities,” he added.
Making clear the division’s stance, after the Northern Virginia arrests, Divver said,
“ICE Washington, D.C.’s mission is to ensure the safety and security of our District of Columbia and Virginia communities through the arrest and removal of those individuals who undermine the safety of our communities and the integrity of our immigration laws. We take this mission extremely seriously, and we will continue to arrest and remove alien offenders.”
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