A man with a past sexual assault conviction was arrested in Boston last month, over a year after he was caught crossing the southern border into the United States illegally.
The incident was first reported on Monday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). According to the report, the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) office in Boston detained the 44-year-old Colombian native on February 14, as part of a “nationwide enforcement effort targeting noncitizens with sexual offense” that ran between February 5 and 16, bringing a total of 275 “noncitizen sex offenders.”
The migrant, whose identity was not disclosed, was first apprehended at the southern border near San Luis, Arizona, by the U.S. Border Patrol in August 2022. He was served a notice to appear before a Department of Justice (DOJ) immigration judge and was released on his own recognizance.
A month later, the man was detained in Massachusetts and charged with indecent assault and battery on a person over 14. After his initial arraignment in the Dedham District Court, he pleaded guilty in December 2022 and was sentenced to one year of probation.
“Deportation officers from ERO Boston apprehended the Colombian noncitizen Feb. 14 near his residence in East Boston and took him into custody,” the agency explained Monday. “He will remain in ERO custody pending removal proceedings. This apprehension was part of a nationwide enforcement effort targeting noncitizens with sexual offenses. Deportation officers from ERO field offices arrested 275 individuals presenting significant threats to public safety. By using an intelligence-driven enforcement model, ERO Boston makes efficient use of limited resources to promote public safety in communities throughout New England.”
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In his own statement on the matter, ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons decried the fact that, despite his past conviction, the unnamed man was permitted to “roam our streets.”
“This Colombian sex offender not only broke our immigration laws; he victimized a Massachusetts resident,” he said. “We cannot allow such threats to roam the streets of our New England communities. ERO Boston will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing such threats from our neighborhoods.”
Newsweek reached out ICE via email on Monday afternoon for comment.
Incidents like this involving migrants who entered the U.S. illegally have long been highlighted by conservative lawmakers as a reason to implement stricter policies on crossings at the southern border with Mexico.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, there were more than 2.4 million encounters at the border during the 2023 fiscal year, up from roughly 1.7 million in 2021. Meanwhile, in the 2024 fiscal year, which started on October 1, 2023, there have been a total of 1,231,213 CBP enforcement actions so far.
Statistics, however, show that native-born U.S. citizens are arrested and imprisoned for a variety of crimes at notably higher rates than undocumented immigrants.
The DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs found in 2020 that “relative to undocumented immigrants, U.S.-born citizens are over 2 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.