BOSTON — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston arrested an unlawfully present Brazilian man in Everett, Massachusetts on May 23. Since February 2023, Brazilian authorities in the province of Minas Gerais wanted the man to answer for drug trafficking charges.
The 37-year-old foreign national unlawfully entered the United States near San Luiz, Arizona, in January 2022. U.S. Border Patrol arrested him and served him a notice to appear before an immigration judge.
“Our region has been impacted by criminal drug trafficking and the effect it has on our communities,” said ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd Lyons. “ERO Boston will seek out and apprehend people wanted for drug trafficking who are not lawfully present in the country. They present a real and credible threat to the public safety of our region and we will not tolerate their presence here.”
Noncitizens placed into removal proceedings receive their legal due process from federal immigration judges in the immigration courts, which are administered by the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). EOIR is an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice and is separate from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case, determining if a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal or eligible for certain forms of relief from removal. Once a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge or other lawful means, ICE officers may carry out the removal.
ERO officers make enforcement decisions on a case-by-case basis in a professional and responsible manner, informed by their experience as law enforcement officials and in a way that best protects against the greatest threats to the homeland and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws.
In fiscal year 2022, ERO arrested 46,396 noncitizens with criminal histories. This group had 198,498 associated charges and convictions, including 21,531 assault offenses; 8,164 sex and sexual assault offenses; 5,554 weapons offenses; 1,501 homicide-related offenses; and 1,114 kidnapping offenses.
As one of ICE’s three operational directorates, ERO is the principal federal law enforcement authority in charge of domestic immigration enforcement. ERO’s mission is to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of U.S. communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and its primary areas of focus are interior enforcement operations, management of the agency’s detained and non-detained populations, and repatriation of noncitizens who have received final orders of removal. ERO’s workforce consists of more than 7,700 law enforcement and non-law enforcement support personnel across 25 domestic field offices and 208 locations nationwide, 30 overseas postings, and multiple temporary duty travel assignments along the border.
For more news and information on how the ERO Boston field office carries out its immigration enforcement mission, follow us on Twitter @EROBoston.
Originally published at https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ero-boston-arrests-foreign-fugitive-wanted-drug-trafficking-brazil
