Enforcement and Removal Operations Dallas recently removed a former Salvadoran officer for human rights violations.
Arnoldo Antonio Vásquez Alvarenga, a former Salvadoran military officer and naturalized U.S. citizen, was removed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in concert with Homeland Security Investigations Dallas for his involvement in human rights violations in El Salvador more than three decades ago, a Feb. 10 news release reported.
“This individual’s removal is the appropriate and necessary action to sustain the viability of the U.S. naturalization process," said ERO Dallas Field Office interim director Robert Lynch Jr. in the release. "His previous involvement in an egregious human rights violation completely voids his right to U.S. citizenship. With his removal from the U.S. to El Salvador, we have played a part in ensuring that the United States is not a safe haven for human rights violators.”
The removal was based on evidence Vásquez Alvarenga had been involved in the extrajudicial execution of 10 people in 1988 and subsequently engaged in a cover-up of the incident, the release reported. He had originally arrived in the U.S. in 1999 and became a naturalized citizen in 2004.
The Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, a specialized investigative arm of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, is tasked with identifying and prosecuting human rights abusers in the U.S., the release reported.
In its 20-year history, HSI has conducted several successful operations, leading to the arrest of 480 suspects for human rights violations and deportation of 1,100 known or suspected violators from American soil, according to the release.
Moreover, it currently has 160 active investigations of alleged perpetrators and more than 1,700 removal cases still under assessment.
The Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center has been dedicated to stopping human rights abusers and war criminals from gaining entry into the United States since 2008.
This specialized team of agents, lawyers, intelligence and research specialists, historians and analysts have furthered HSI's efforts to identify, locate and prosecute human rights violators by issuing more than 78,000 lookouts for individuals since their inauguration, the release reported.
