Texas ICE Agents Apprehend Over 400 Migrants in Massive Operation

Immigration Reporter

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Federal immigration authorities have apprehended 422 undocumented immigrants during a weeklong operation in Houston.

Why It Matters

President Donald Trump won the 2024 election with immigration at the forefront of his policy agenda. He pledged to remove millions of migrants without legal status as part of an aggressive mass deportation policy.

What To Know

Fox News reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents apprehended an immigrant wanted for alleged murder in Colombia.

"He has a homicide conviction in Colombia and was sentenced to 21 years there," ICE Houston Director Bret Bradford said. "He entered the United States illegally in February of 2024, was given a court date for an immigration hearing and released. He did not show up for that court date, so in March of this year, he was ordered removed by an immigration judge here in the United States.

According to Fox's report, of the 422 arrests, 262 individuals had criminal convictions, 34 had pending charges, 126 were cited for other immigration violations, and 229 had final orders of removal.

As part of the operation, authorities apprehended a 40-year-old Mexican national who had been deported on two prior occasions and attempted to evade capture by car and later on foot. ICE said that the man, Hector Castillo-Garcia, had been previously convicted in the United States on multiple charges, including arson, assault with a deadly weapon, and DUI, while residing in the country without legal status.

In a separate arrest, ICE agents in Houston arrested 29-year-old Honduran national Junior Alejandro Chan Lopez. According to the agency, he was previously convicted in Harris County, Texas, for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

ICE has increased efforts to carry out removals of individuals with final deportation orders by transferring them to designated hubs for expedited return to their home countries. According to Fox News, this "hub-and-spoke" system, designed to streamline the removal process, was implemented only recently.

What People Are Saying

GOP Representative Wesley Hunt of Texas said in a post on X, formerly Twitter: "ICE Houston Apprehends High-Profile Migrant Criminals! 400+ illegal aliens were arrested in a weeklong effort to crack down on migrant crime. Let's keep up the good work!"

ICE Houston Director Brett Bradford told Fox News: "They are doing the database research to get the worst of the worst, the ones who have the most significant threat to public safety.

"And then we want to look at the information we have on that individual, make sure it's a viable target, make sure we have good addresses, go out and do surveillance so we can see if we can a pattern of the subjects' movements and behavior.

"So, we want to kind of combine the worst of the worst plus the ones we have the most likelihood of encountering and arresting, trying to merge those two things together to come up with the top targets."