U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers continued enforcement actions during the Thanksgiving holiday, arresting several individuals identified as criminal illegal aliens in various states.
According to Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, “While Americans gathered around the table with their families and friends for Thanksgiving, DHS law enforcement officers were hard work arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens. Some of the Thanksgiving Day arrests include murderers, pedophiles, and rapists. As a nation, we are grateful for our law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line every single day—including on holidays—to protect our neighborhoods and make America safe again.”
Among those arrested were Salvador Cifuentes-Catalan from Guatemala, convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old in Santa Ana, California; Ernest Henry Wagner from Belize, convicted of rape in Elkhart, Kansas; Oluwadamilola Christiannah Akinpelu from Nigeria, convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in the Southern District of New York; Keith Henry Thompson from the Bahamas, convicted of third-degree murder in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; and Julio-Hernandez-Popcatl from Mexico, convicted of open lewdness in Easton, Pennsylvania.
These arrests are part of ongoing efforts by ICE to target individuals with serious criminal convictions who are present unlawfully in the United States.
