Houston ICE removes 25 child predators from Houston; targeting other criminals
HOUSTON - The Houston Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office says they remove more than a thousand illegal non-citizens a month.
"So in the month of October, we had somewhere around 1,300 removals," said Bret A. Bradford, the ICE Houston Field Officer Director.
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He says the big issue – how many of these individuals are criminals. Among the 1,300 removed, he says 25 are child sex predators. Convicted of crimes like aggravated sexual assault of a child and incest.
"There’s one who had a child sex crime, was removed, entered the country again, and committed another child sex crime. So, he has more than one. And for me, these crime against children are heinous. It’s a population that can’t defend themselves."
"Not only were the sex predators in that number, we had individuals convicted of homicide, drug trafficking, aggravated assault, DUI, a host of offenses," he said.
He says their office intercepts individuals directly from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, and they also have five fugitive teams who actively go out to apprehend non-citizens.
"We do try to prioritize the serious criminals, the ones who are a threat, gang members, threats, no national security, terrorists," he said.
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ICE data shows that nationally the percentage of criminals that make up removals is similar to here in Houston.
According to their data, in 2023, 49% of all people removed from the U.S. by ICE were criminals or accused of crimes; and these are crimes other than entering the U.S. illegally.
The number of removals has also been on the rise in the Houston area. The data shows a 32% increase in removals from 2021 FY to 2022 FY and a 97% increase from 2022 FY to 2023 FY.
The data for 2024 FY isn’t back in full, but numbers from the first two months put the Houston field office on track to see another 32% increase year-over-year.
"If you're in this country illegally and going on to further commit crimes or to victimize our communities, we're here, we're going to hunt you down and remove you from this country," said Bradford.