U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston said it arrested 3,593 illegal immigrants over the course of the 43-day government shutdown that stretched from October 1 to November 12, detailing a series of arrests that officials argued underscore persistent public-safety concerns tied to unlawful immigration.
According to the agency, those taken into custody included individuals convicted of a wide range of violent and sexual offenses. ICE reported arresting 67 sex offenders, 13 people convicted of murder, 51 child predators, and hundreds of others with criminal histories. Among them were 366 people convicted of driving while intoxicated, 261 convicted of aggravated assault, and 103 convicted of burglary or theft.
Agency officials said the operation also swept up 23 gang members. One case involved a Honduran national, Josue Pineda-Ayala, a 23-year-old MS-13 member who ICE said was charged with a triple homicide in Dallas. According to ICE, Pineda-Ayala entered the United States after being released into the country in May of last year under the former Biden administration. The agency alleges he went on to commit the triple murder before ICE detained him in early October. He was later transferred to the Dallas County Jail with a detainer lodged and is awaiting charges.
Another case highlighted by ICE involved Baldomero Perez-Quezada, a 56-year-old Mexican national described by the agency as a criminal illegal immigrant who has been removed from the United States four times. ICE said Perez-Quezada, a convicted child predator, was arrested on October 17. He had previously been encountered at the Edinburg Police Department in 2023, also under the former Biden administration, and later sexually abused a child, leading to a conviction for sexual indecency with a child earlier this year.
ICE officials emphasized the scale of the arrests and the nature of the alleged offenses as evidence of the agency’s role in protecting public safety, even as the shutdown left many personnel working without pay.
“Our entire team understands how critical ICE’s mission is to public safety and national security, and despite many of them going without pay, they continued to show up every day and give everything they had to protect this community from dangerous criminal illegal alien gang members, child predators, murderers and rapists,” said Bret Bradford, the Houston field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Bradford said the arrests removed a significant number of offenders from communities across Southeast Texas. “As a result of those efforts, 51 dangerous child predators are no longer free to prey on our children, 10 fugitives have been apprehended and will now face justice for their alleged offenses, and thousands of other violent criminal aliens have been removed from local communities throughout Southeast Texas and will be removed from the United States,” he said.
The agency’s announcement reflects an effort to highlight the shutdown-era operations as a reminder of what ICE officials describe as ongoing risks tied to illegal immigration and the importance of sustained enforcement, even under strained federal conditions.
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