U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed in a press release on Monday that they had successfully arrested 214 illegal immigrants in the Houston, Texas area in the past six months who have been charged with, or convicted of, a sex offense involving a minor.
Reportedly, the 214 arrests were more than the Houston field office arrested during the entire 2024 fiscal year, when officers arrested 211 illegals charged or convicted of child sex offenses.
The apparent surge in arrests of illegal immigrants charged with or convicted of child sex offenses according to the press release is the direct result of a “government approach implemented under the current administration,” which has led to the establishment of multiagency targeting teams focusing on each area of responsibility. The teams “conduct daily enhanced immigration enforcement operations targeting the ‘worst of the worst’ criminal aliens for arrest and removal.”
Aside from the resounding success in rounding up sex offender illegal aliens in the Houston area, the new government approach also led to the total arrest of 1,361 illegal immigrants in the Houston area in the month of June. Some of the June arrestees had been convicted of homicide or were documented members of a transnational gang or drug cartel, and one illegal alien had been convicted of hijacking a plane on its way to Key West from Cuba.
ICE released the names of five of the illegal immigrants arrested for sex offenses involving minors, along with their prior charges and convictions. This serves to highlight some of the larger issues ICE has been facing recently, with cities refusing to assist in the deportation of illegal immigrants committing crimes against innocent civilians. The illegal immigrants mentioned are:
- Jesus Gutierrez Mireles, a 67-year-old, three-time deported criminal alien from Mexico, who was arrested March 28 and has been convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child and driving while intoxicated. ICE removed Gutierrez Mireles to Mexico April 4.
- Jorge Zebra, a 48-year-old criminal alien from Mexico, who was arrested March 21 and has been convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a minor and sexual indecency with a minor. ICE removed Zebra to Mexico March 24.
- Manuel Antonio Castro-Juarez, a 37-year-old, twice-deported criminal alien from El Salvador who was arrested July 18 and has been convicted of sexual assault of a minor and twice for illegal reentry. Castro-Juarez remains in ICE custody pending his third removal to El Salvador.
- Jose Guadalupe Meza, a 40-year-old, four-time deported criminal alien from Mexico who was arrested June 24 and has been convicted of theft and sexual assault of a child. ICE removed Guadalupe Meza to Mexico June 25.
- Sergio Rolando Galvan Guerrero, a 45-year-old, three-time deported criminal alien from Mexico who was arrested July 12 and has been convicted of DWI and aggravated sexual assault of a child. ICE removed Galvan Guerrero to Mexico July 14.
ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Acting Field Office Director, Paul McBride, affirmed the following in relation to the recent success in Houston:
“Bringing together the resources and expertise of the entire federal law enforcement community to confront the overwhelming surge of illegal immigration that we saw over the past four years has resulted in the arrest and removal of historic numbers of violent criminal aliens, transnational gang members and child sex offenders.
“While we still have a long way to go to truly get this crisis under control, the strides we have made in just six months to make our local communities safer are substantial, and our officers continue to work tirelessly every day to get the worst of the worst criminal aliens out of Southeast Texas to return our communities to places we can all enjoy.”