ERO Houston apprehends, removes 2 unlawfully present Mexican fugitives

HOUSTON — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Houston, with assistance from ERO Mexico and the Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement (SAFE) Task Force, removed two unlawfully present foreign fugitives from the United States to Mexico on Nov. 15.

Deportation officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) transported Jose Luis Chazaro Ramirez, a 28-year-old unlawfully present Mexican national wanted for kidnapping, and Arturo Orenday Baez, a 32-year-old unlawfully present Mexican national wanted for child abandonment, from the Montgomery Processing Center (MPC) in Conroe, Texas, to the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge in Laredo. Upon arrival, they were both transferred into the custody of Mexican law enforcement authorities.

“Foreign fugitives thinking about illegally entering the United States and hiding out in Southeast Texas to evade prosecution for their alleged crimes should think twice,” said ERO Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford. “Our fugitive operations officers work tirelessly alongside their law enforcement partners to track down dangerous foreign fugitives and other criminal noncitizens so they can be repatriated to their country of origin to face justice in a court of law.”

Chazaro illegally entered the U.S. on an unknown date and at an unknown location. On Sept. 20, 2023, ERO Houston received information from the U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Violent Offenders and Fugitive Task Force that Chazaro was wanted in Mexico for kidnapping and possibly illegally residing in the Houston area. On Oct. 3, ERO Houston and the U.S. Marshals Service successfully apprehended Chazaro in east Houston. He was taken into ICE custody and detained at MPC pending disposition of his immigration proceedings. On Nov. 6, an immigration judge with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review ordered Chazaro removed from the U.S. to Mexico.

Orenday also illegally entered the U.S. on an unknown date and at an unknown location. On June 12, 2023, ERO Houston received information that he was wanted in Mexico for child abandonment and was possibly residing in Houston. On Oct. 25, ERO Houston arrested Orenday at a residence in southeast Houston and he was detained at MPC pending disposition of his immigration proceedings. On Nov. 2, an immigration judge ordered Orenday removed from the U.S. to Mexico.

Members of the public who have information about foreign fugitives are urged to contact ICE by calling the ICE Tip Line at 1 (866) 347-2423 or internationally at 001-1802-872-6199. They can also file a tip online by completing ICE’s online tip form.

For more news and information on how the ICE ERO Houston Field Office carries out its immigration enforcement mission in Southeast Texas follow us on Twitter @EROHouston.

The SAFE Program is a fugitive enforcement and information sharing partnership that was created in 2012 to better use subject information derived from local in-country investigative resources and leads to locate, apprehend, detain, and remove individuals residing in the U.S. illegally who were subject to foreign arrest warrants. The SAFE Program operates under the respective host nation’s AAR, which constructs a SAFE task force composed of relevant foreign law enforcement agencies, immigration authorities, attorneys general, and national identification repositories – as well as other regional, national, state, and local government agencies. The managing AAR ensures that each task force member complies with SAFE policies and standards consistent with the program’s standard operating procedures. Once established, the AAR-led SAFE task force generates new leads and vets existing SAFE fugitive referrals for ERO action.

As one of ICE’s three operational directorates, ERO is the principal federal law enforcement authority in charge of domestic immigration enforcement. ERO’s mission is to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of U.S. communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and its primary areas of focus are interior enforcement operations, management of the agency’s detained and non-detained populations, and repatriation of noncitizens who have received final orders of removal. ERO’s workforce consists of more than 7,700 law enforcement and non-law enforcement support personnel across 25 domestic field offices and 208 locations nationwide, 30 overseas postings, and multiple temporary duty travel (TDY) assignments along the border.

Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.gov)