An illegal immigrant convicted of raping and impregnating his younger sister was apprehended as part of a 10-day ICE Houston operation.
Selvin Joel Lara Diaz, 35, a Mexican Mafia gang member, was apprehended by ICE officials and federal partners on October 29 after previously being deported. Lara Diaz is also wanted in his home nation of Honduras for murder, according to an ICE press release.
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Following his escape, ICE discovered Diaz lying under a shelf in the stockroom of a Houston-area grocery store.
Diaz is one of 1,505 criminal illegal immigrants, transnational gang members, foreign fugitives, and other immigration offenders apprehended during the operation, which took place in Southeast Texas from October 22 to October 31.
The news release stated that the operation “focused on enhancing public safety and restoring integrity to the nation’s immigration system.”
The 1,505 arrests nearly surpassed the ICE Houston Field Office’s last week-long operation, which detained 822 persons from August 17 to 23.
Among the 1,505 arrests, ICE reported 17 documented gang members, 40 aggravated felons, one convicted murderer, 13 sexual predators, one foreign fugitive, 115 aggravated assault offenses, 142 DWIs, 55 drug offenses, 25 burglary/theft offenses, 31 weapons offenses, 255 illegal aliens who committed a felony by illegally reentering the United States after being deported at least once, and many other additional criminal offenses.
According to the press release, roughly one-third of those apprehended during the ICE-Houston operation were granted due process and ordered to be removed from the United States by an immigration judge.
Those arrested during the operation who have not been ordered removed and are not eligible for expedited removal will be placed in immigration proceedings.
In a statement, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Field Office Director Bret Bradford expressed gratitude to ICE officers for their “unwavering commitment to defend this community from foreign criminal invaders and other illegal aliens.”
Bradford underlined that those arrested were “no longer free” and that the ICE Houston operation “saved lives and prevented countless Houstonians from having to suffer from the nightmares and PTSD that come with being a victim of a violent crime.”
