Immigration officers in San Antonio, Texas, removed a twice-deported MS-13 gang member wanted in his home country for killing three people in El Salvador. The man has a criminal history in the U.S. as well.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers handed Santiago Humberto Rodriguez-Aparicio, 41, over to Salvadoran law enforcement officials. The officers flew the MS-13 Salvadoran gang member on a charter flight coordinated by the ICE Air Operations Unit (IAO), information provided to Breitbart Texas by ICE officials indicated.
Officials from El Salvador issued a warrant for Rodriguez-Aparicio arrest and extradition that accuses the gang member of participating in a shooting that left three people dead. He is charged with aggravated homicide and discharging a firearm.
“ICE has a long history of working cooperatively with international law enforcement agencies to effect removals and ensure that fugitive aliens are returned to face justice,” San Antonio ERO Field Director Daniel Bible said in a written statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “ICE combines our unique immigration enforcement authorities and our international partnerships to help protect our communities from criminal aliens who pose a public safety threat.”
Rodriguez-Aparicio’s criminal activities are not limited to his home country of El Salvador. In February 2007, an immigration judge ordered the Salvadoran national removed from the U.S. ERO officers in Phoenix facilitated the deportation. Nearly two years later, police in Las Vegas arrested Rodriguez-Aparicio again for being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm. A federal court judge in Nevada sentenced him to 41 months in prison. ERO officers removed him from the U.S. for the second time in Feb. 2012 from New Orleans.
He illegally returned to the U.S. for at least a third time and U.S. Border Patrol in Hidalgo, Texas, arrested him. This time, prosecutors charged the Salvadoran national with illegal re-entry after removal. A federal court judge in McAllen, Texas, sentenced him to 27 months in prison. During that period, officials became aware of the warrant from El Salvador. Prison officials turned Rodriguez-Aparicio over to ICE ERO officers for processing and detention. On April 21, he boarded the charter flight, and ERO officers turned him over to El Salvador’s Civilian National Police.
“Since Oct. 1, 2009,” ICE officials wrote in their official statement, “ERO has removed more than 1,700 foreign fugitives from the United States who were sought in their native countries for serious crimes, including kidnapping, rape, and murder. In fiscal year 2016, ICE conducted 240,255 removals nationwide.”
Officials reported ninety-two percent of individuals removed from the interior of the United States as having prior criminal convictions.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.