The Houston branch of ICE alone arrested 214 “criminal illegal aliens in the past six months who have been charged or convicted of a sex offense involving a minor,” a Tuesday DHS press release said.
“Of the 214 criminal illegal aliens arrested, 179 had final orders of removal from an immigration judge. 141 have already been removed,” according to the press release. Some of the criminals highlighted by the department range from ages 25-76.
One convicted molester, 25-year-old Gabriel Julio Velazquez Lopez from Mexico, “illegally entered the U.S. four times since 2016” until he was arrested and deported in April.
Roberto Antonio Caballero-Garcia from El Salvador was “arrested for three counts of sexual assault of a child” in Dallas County, “convicted in 2017,” and “given 10 years deferred adjudication.” He was deported in May, according to the DHS. Meliton Gonzalez from Mexico has been illegally in the U.S. since 1976, “convicted of child sexual assault in 2015 and sentenced to 10 years,” and deported in June. Mario Ramirez Martinez from Mexico was deported in June after serving 10 years in prison for “two counts of sexual assault of a child.”
“President Trump and Secretary Noem will not allow these sickos to prey on children in the U.S.,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “Our message to these depraved criminals is clear: LEAVE NOW. If you don’t, we will hunt you down and deport you.”
The ICE Houston Field Office under the Biden administration arrested a total of 211 illegal immigrants “charged or convicted” of child sex crimes for the whole 2024 fiscal year, according to the DHS.
ICE made more than 109,000 arrests throughout the first five months of Trump’s second term, CBS reported. Federal immigration enforcement made only 49,000 arrests in 2024 during a similar time range in 2024. This means ICE arrests have gone up 120 percent under Trump, CBS noted.
The criminals were likely “convicted in absentia,” “plead guilty and were released prior to sentencing, and then failed to appear for sentencing,” or “they may have served their jail/prison time and then while serving a post-incarceration term on parole/community supervision they absconded,” lawyer for Holtzman Vogel Andrew Gould told The Federalist.
DHS released a press release on Wednesday highlighting arrests of other “child pedophiles and human traffickers.” Mohammed Sesay, one of the “most brutal criminals” arrested, is from Sierra Leone and convicted of “second-degree rape and second-degree sex offense” for raping an 11-year-old little girl “repeatedly” over 5 months in 2014. He “threaten[ed] to kill her if she told anyone,” according to the DHS.
“What these innocent children had to endure is horrifying,” McLaughlin said in the Wednesday press release. “These criminals should have never been in this country in the first place and these children should have never been victimized.”
Abigail Nichols is a correspondent for The Federalist. She was previously the opinion editor for the University of South Florida’s student newspaper, The Oracle. She is now working as the business manager at the University of North Florida’s student-run media outlet, Spinnaker Media, while obtaining a Master’s Degree in Social work.
