ICE Arrests 1 In Ossining During Operation No Safe Haven

OSSINING, NY — Officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations New York arrested six people during a three-day period in Ossining and New York City. As well as in Ossining, ERO deportation officers made arrests in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens as part of a nationwide operation in which 39 people were picked up.

ICE officials said the operation Aug. 27-29 targeted known or suspected human rights violators who were issued final orders of removal to be removed from the United States.

“The six arrested during this operation used the backdrop of New York City to shadow their illicit pasts in their home countries,” said Thomas R. Decker, field office director for ERO New York. “ICE officers will continue to focus their enforcement efforts on criminal aliens and others, like these known or suspected human rights violators, and will seek to have each one removed to their home country.”

The New York metro area arrestees include nationals from: Albania, China, Guatemala, and Sudan. ICE offered descriptions of three:

• A Guatemalan national and former military official who served at the site of military sweeps and massacres during his period of military service
• A Chinese national who assisted in forced abortion and/or sterilization in China
• A Chinese national who was an active participant in China’s coercive family planning policy

Those arrested across the country included:

• Fourteen individuals from Central America implicated in numerous human rights violations against civilians, to include the capture, arrest and/or transport of civilians who were subsequently mistreated, and in some cases, beaten, electrocuted, and killed;
• Four known or suspected human rights violators from China, complicit in collaborating with the government to assist in forced abortions and sterilizations against victims;
• Four individuals from West Africa connected to a range of atrocities, including civilian massacres, mutilations, recruitment of child soldiers, extrajudicial killings, and other human rights violations.
• An individual from Europe implicated in human rights abuses against political opponents through work with a security agency.

All of those arrested have outstanding removal orders, are subject to repatriation to their countries of origin and are currently detained in ICE custody pending removal from the United States, ICE officials said.

ICE officials said the agency focuses its enforcement resources on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security. ICE deportation officers carry out targeted enforcement operations every day in locations around the country as part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to protect the nation, uphold public safety, and protect the integrity of the country's immigration laws and border controls. These operations involve existing, established Fugitive Operations Teams.

ICE is committed to identifying, investigating, prosecuting and removing known or suspected human rights violators who seek a safe haven in the United States. ICE's Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center investigates human rights violators who try to evade justice by seeking shelter in the United States, including those who are known or suspected to have participated in persecution, war crimes, genocide, torture, extrajudicial killings, severe violations of religious freedom, female genital mutilation/cutting and the use or recruitment of child soldiers. These individuals may use fraudulent identities or falsified documents to enter the country and attempt to blend into communities in the United States, officials said.

Since 2003, ICE has arrested more than 415 individuals for human rights-related violations of the law under various criminal and/or immigration statutes. During that same period, ICE obtained deportation orders against and physically removed more than 990 known or suspected human rights violators from the United States, officials said.