MIAMI, Fla. — The target, who agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were looking for, was no stranger to them. The Mexican national had been previously convicted of aggravated battery on a pregnant woman and was deported earlier this year.
Apparently managing to be one of the few gotaways at the southern border, the man was once again back in Florida. Blaze News was embedded with the ICE team that was sent to arrest him so he could face federal charges for allegedly illegally re-entering after being deported. After giving the pre-dawn morning briefing, agents staged themselves outside of the home, waiting for the man to be picked up for work by a white pickup truck.
The agents were in disbelief that he would willingly show them an allegedly fake green card since presenting it to them is a felony.
The lead agent said it was possible to encounter other illegal aliens in the pickup. Surveillance conducted at the residence showed the man would leave the house anywhere from 6:15 a.m. to 6:50 a.m. So the team waited.
Close to 6:50 a.m., the target was confirmed and intercepted down the road. The man was apprehended without incident.
There were two other men in the truck, one from Mexico and another from the Dominican Republic. The other Mexican quickly admitted he was not in the U.S. legally and was taken into custody. The Dominican, however, insisted to agents he had a permanent resident card, also known as a green card, but did not have it on him.
The Dominican offered to take the agents back to his house to show them the card that was in his passport. The agents agreed and went to look at the card. After entering the residence and locating the card, it was quickly determined to be a fake, so the man was officially taken into custody. The agents were in disbelief that he would willingly show them an allegedly fake green card since presenting it to them is a felony.
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At the processing center in Miramar, it was then discovered after fingerprints were taken that the Dominican had a criminal history in the U.S. beyond just being here illegally.
The man was arrested in 1999 for aggravated assault and convicted in 2001. He was sentenced to one year in prison. He was arrested again in 2001 for first-degree arson and harassment and sentenced to one year in prison, with three years of supervised release. He was ordered to be removed by an immigration judge in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 3, 2003, and was deported back to the Dominican Republic on February 5, 2003.
The original target and the Dominican have since been referred to the Department of Justice for federal charges.
With ICE agents being heavily attacked in other parts of the country during operations and some local police departments forbidden to cooperate with them, agents in the Miami Field Office said they appreciate how their mission is supported in Florida. The ICE office in Miami averages around 120 arrests per day. Those numbers do not include arrests made by U.S. Border Patrol or Homeland Security Investigations.
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