News and reports from the Department of Homeland Security.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) welcomed seven new forensic analysts into its ranks during the Human Exploitation Rescue Operation Child-Rescue Corps (HERO Corps) graduation ceremony Dec. 8.

A judge sentenced Paul John McNicol, 30, of LeClaire, Iowa to 216 months in prison for receiving child pornography on Nov. 30 following a Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, probe.

Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, Kansas City Joshua Armstrong and Acting United States Attorney Steven Russell announced that Dallas Faamausili, 36, of Renton, Washington, was sentenced to more than five years in prison Thursday in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska.

A South Texas stash house operator was sentenced to nearly three years in federal prison Dec. 8 for his role in smuggling unlawfully present noncitizens in the back of a fruit truck following an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations Corpus Christi and U.S. Border Patrol.

Three pastors from Jesus Survives Ministries, a now-defunct Houston-area church, have pleaded guilty for their roles in a conspiracy to commit COVID-19 relief and car loan fraud following an investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations Houston, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the Small Business Administration and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Inspector General.

A federal grand jury in Wichita returned an indictment charging a Kansas man with one count of sexual exploitation of a child/production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography following a Homeland Security Investigations probe.

Deportation officers with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Newark field office apprehended three unlawfully present noncitizens convicted of sex offenses during a nationwide enforcement action from Oct. 22 through Nov. 4. ERO’s law enforcement action resulted in a total of 138 arrests nationally, including some people who were previously ordered removed from the U.S. but failed to depart.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) field offices in Dallas and Tampa were recognized during the 2022 Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Director’s Law Enforcement Awards Ceremony, Dec. 1. FinCEN, a bureau of the U.S. Department of Treasury, safeguards the financial system from illicit use, combats money laundering and related crimes including terrorism, and promotes national security through the strategic use of financial authorities and the collection, analysis, and dissemination of financial intelligence.

The Department of Justice has announced the unsealing of an 11-count indictment charging 12 individuals in a long-running, multifaceted conspiracy to monopolize the transmigrante forwarding industry in the Los Indios border region near Harlingen and Brownsville following an investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

An investigation led by Homeland Security Investigations’ Philadelphia field office — commonly called HSI Philadelphia — landed a former Middlesex County, New Jersey sheriff’s deputy in federal prison for 15 years, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for producing, distributing and possessing child pornography. Joshua Padilla, 37, of Eatontown, New Jersey, was also ordered to pay $15,300 in special assessments when he received the lengthy prison sentence Friday.

Deportation officers with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Newark field office, commonly referred to as ERO Newark, apprehended 43 noncitizens across New Jersey who were previously removed from the U.S., many of whom were charged with or convicted of various criminal offenses, during a local enforcement operation that took place between Nov. 28 and Dec. 5.

The Department of Homeland Security today posted a Federal Register notice on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Ethiopia.

Today, USCIS released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 progress report (PDF, 1.08 MB) with new information demonstrating how it reduced backlogs in certain programs and supported humanitarian missions.

Effective Dec. 12, 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is updating the USCIS Policy Manual to allow USCIS to automatically extend the validity of Permanent Resident Cards (commonly called Green Cards) for lawful permanent residents who have applied for naturalization.

A Webster City man who ordered a pound of methamphetamine from someone he met in state prison was sentenced to more than 15 years in federal prison on Nov. 29 following a joint investigation involving Homeland Security Investigations, commonly called HSI.