ICE Houston deports 8-time removed criminal alien convicted of kidnapping to Mexico

HOUSTON – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported Baltazar Pantoja Calderon, a 43-year-old eight-time removed criminal alien convicted of kidnapping and several other criminal offenses in the U.S., to his home country of Mexico March 13.

Pantoja has illegally entered the U.S. at least eight times. Each time he was caught by U.S. immigration officials and voluntarily departed to Mexico May 27, 1999; and was deported on July 1, 2008; Sept. 1, 2010; Oct. 29, 2014; March 18, 2015; May 3, 2017; and Feb. 2, 2018.

Pantoja has also been convicted of numerous criminal offenses while in the U.S. illegally including kidnapping May 12, 2010; driving while intoxicated May 29, 2008; illegal entry July 3, 2018; and resisting arrest March 10, 2025.

“The complete lack of respect for our nation’s system of laws that this criminal alien has displayed over the past quarter of a century has in recent years, unfortunately, become more commonplace,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford. “The law enforcement community in South Texas is united in our determination to restore sovereignty over our southern border and has banded together to remove these dangerous criminal aliens from our country to restore law and order in our communities.”

For more news and information on ICE’s efforts to enforce our nation’s immigration laws in Texas follow us on X at @EROHouston.

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