Though Donald Trump sparked yet another firestorm of criticism when he used the term “bad hombres” during the third and final presidential debate last fall, since Trump has taken office federal immigration agents have been turning the heat up on dangerous criminals who are in the U.S. illegally.
"We're going to secure the border, and once the border is secured at a later date, we'll make a determination as to the rest," Trump said during that debate with Hillary Clinton in October. "But we have some bad hombres here and we're going to get them out," he pledged in his typically blunt manner.
Trump used the term to describe drug smugglers and other criminals who cross into the U.S. and commit crimes, but some considered his choice of words bigoted and racist.
Regardless of his terminology, with Trump in office less than a month, U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been targeting those described as “convicted criminal aliens and gang members.” In a little more than a month hundreds of convicted felons living in the U.S. illegally have been arrested, with some of those felons somehow managing to avoid arrest for years.
Honduran man wanted in machete killings among those arrested
In one of a series of raids across the U.S., ICE agents arrested a Honduran national authorities say hacked two men to death with a machete inside a Honduras liquor store in 1993.
Francisco Escobar-Orellana was arrested near his home in Hope Mills, North Carolina on Tuesday. Other than saying the 56-year-old Escobar-Orellana was in the country illegally, federal officials could not say when he entered the U.S.
"ICE is focused on identifying, arresting and removing public safety threats, such as convicted criminal aliens and gang members, as well as individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws," ICE official Sean Gallagher said in a statement after the arrest.
Convicted murderer wanted in Brazil arrested
The day before, Border Patrol agents in Pompano Beach, Florida arrested a convicted murderer wanted by authorities in Brazil. Federal officials did not release the wanted man’s name but said he had entered the United States illegally in Texas.
Prison escapee arrested after 14 years
ICE agents have also arrested a Mexican national who’s been a wanted fugitive since escaping from an Illinois prison 14 years ago.
Jorge Soberanis-Rumaldo was arrested at his home in Atlanta on Friday. Soberanis-Rumaldo, who is now 58-years-old, had only served three months of an eight-year sentence for possession of cocaine when he escaped while on a work detail at Stateville Correctional Center in June of 2003. It’s not know how long Soberanis-Rumaldo had been living in Atlanta, or what he had been doing for those nearly 14 years.
MS-13 gang member arrested at border
Along the border, Border Patrol agents arrested a member of the notorious and violent Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13 gang, after he and two other men had illegally crossed into the U.S. near Potrero, Calif., a sleepy border town about 60 miles east of San Diego.
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Officials say the 32-year-old gang member, who is a citizen of El Salvador, but has not been named, had been previously deported from the U.S.
Also, in a remote area of California’s Imperial Valley, Border Patrol agents last Thursday arrested a man being described as a “sexual predator” as he ran north from the International Border fence near the tiny farming community of Mount Signal. After taking the 42-year-old man into custody, Border Patrol agents determined he was a Mexican national who had been deported from the U.S. after serving time on a California conviction for Lewdness Acts with a Minor under 16.
Border Patrol officials say since Oct. 1 in the El Centro area alone, they’ve arrested five convicted sex offenders trying to get back into the U.S. after being deported.
