ICE will deport criminal gang member two years after he was caught and released at the border

Federal authorities will deport an illegal alien gang member who was previously deported and later released into the U.S. two years after he was encountered, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Monday.

The Salvadoran 18th Street gang member was first caught in May 2011 by Border Patrol, which handed him to ICE, who removed him back to El Salvador in July 2011, ICE said. Upon his return to El Salvador, the San Salvador Police Department arrested and charged him with crimes involving public peace, illicit groups and illegally carrying a firearm in July 2013, identifying him as a member of 18th Street.

The gang member then reentered the country in 2021 and was apprehended before being released; however, he was apprehended again in Cockeysville, Maryland, on Nov. 7.

“This Salvadoran noncitizen represented a threat to the residents of Maryland,” Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Baltimore acting Field Office Director Darius Reeves said in a statement. “He is a documented member of a violent street gang using our communities to hide out from authorities in his home country. ERO Baltimore will not allow the world’s criminals to use Maryland neighborhoods to escape justice.”

Authorities in San Salvador arrested the gang member in November 2015, charging him with carrying a firearm illegally, according to ICE. Later, he reentered the U.S. illegally without detection but was ultimately nabbed by Border Patrol in March 2021 with his spouse and child near Hidalgo, Texas.

Despite being charged twice with crimes, the illegal immigrant was released by U.S. authorities into the country, according to ICE.

In May 2022, he filed an asylum application for a withholding of removal, but the following month an immigration judge rejected his plea, according to ICE. His removal was reinstated in February 2023.

ICE Deportation officers from ERO Baltimore’s Fugitive Operations Team arrested the illegal alien on Nov. 7 at his home in Cockeysville, Maryland, according to ICE.

Border Patrol made 65 arrests of 18th Street members in fiscal year 2023, according to federal data. The gang operates through violent actions in many areas of the U.S., according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

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