According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a Socorro, Texas man conspired with other "coyotes" to smuggle more than 1,500 illegal aliens into the United States . ICE special agents arrested Samuel Walter Jarvis and 14 other members of two alien smuggling organizations in January. Jarvis was sentenced to 108 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. On August 7, Jarvis pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to smuggle aliens and admitted that from March 2003 to December 2005, he led a ring that was responsible for smuggling aliens into the United States and transporting them from El Paso to the Dallas area. David F. Fry, acting special agent in charge of the ICE Office in El Paso , said that during the two year investigation, ICE agents encountered various smuggled groups of 35 to 79 people crammed into trailers for the non-stop nine hour trip to Dallas from El Paso with no food and limited water. The investigation revealed that Jarvis and his associates collected more than $1.6 million in smuggling fees between 2003 and 2005.
Jarvis, along with Mike Price and his wife Fabiola del Carmen Moguel de Price, originally worked together. In 2003 the Prices left the Jarvis organization to establish their own alien smuggling network. Both organizations housed the aliens in drop houses throughout El Paso County after smuggling them into the United States . Depending on the nationality, they charged each alien between $1,500 and $6,000 to be smuggled into the U.S. The Prices each received 60 months in prison.
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Four illegal aliens plead guilty to manufacturing and distributing fraudulent documents along the Mississippi Gulf Coast following an investigation by ICE agents. Camilo Calihua-Leynes, Raymundo Sanchez-Martinez, Juan Manuel Calihua-Garcia and Enrique Hernandez-Cabrera were all arrested for producing and selling counterfeit government identification documents. Subsequent to their arrest, a federal search warrant was executed at their residence in Biloxi , Mississippi where numerous fraudulent alien registration cards, Social Security cards and document manufacturing equipment were seized. Also encountered at the residence were 15 illegal aliens from Mexico , El Salvador and Guatemala , who were later processed and entered into deportation proceedings. After completing their sentences, all four defendants will be turned over to the ICE and placed into removal proceedings.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the removal of Kelbessa Negewo, a human rights violator. On October 19 officers from the Atlanta Field Office escorted Negewo, an Ethiopian citizen, to Addis Ababa where he was turned over to law enforcement representatives. Negewo served as chairman of the Higher Zone 9, one of several units in Addis Ababa which employed a campaign of torture, arbitrary imprisonment and summary executions against perceived enemies of the government. An ICE investigation revealed that Negewo had made false statements about his past human rights violations to obtain U.S. citizenship.
Negewo’s removal is the latest accomplishment under ICE’s ongoing initiative to identify, apprehend, prosecute and remove human rights violators.
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ICE agents and officers apprehended 49 criminal aliens, fugitive aliens, and other immigration status violators as part of a four-day southwest Idaho interior immigration enforcement operation known as "Operation Return to Sender". The operation began on October 16 in Boise where 22 arrests were made. ICE officers continued the Idaho operation in Nampa , Caldwell , Meridian and Eagle, and made 27 additional arrests. Among the 49 individuals arrested in the Idaho operation, so far 31 have already returned to Mexico .
The arrests are the latest enforcement actions under the interior immigration enforcement strategy that was announced April 20 by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Assistant Secretary Julie Myers. The interior enforcement strategy is part of the Secure Border Initiative, which is the Department of Homeland Security’s comprehensive, multi-year plan to secure America ’s borders and reduce illegal migration. The interior enforcement strategy complements the Department’s border security efforts by expanding existing efforts to target immigration violators inside this country, employers of illegal aliens, as well as the many criminal networks that support these activities.
