Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston said on Tuesday that a Guatemalan illegal immigrant had been detained and found guilty of assault and battery on a minor.
A 34-year-old national of Guatemala who was just found guilty of child sex abuse was taken into custody by ERO Boston on February 21, according to officials.
“This individual represented a dire threat to the residents of Massachusetts,” said ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons. “Unlawfully present, convicted sex offenders should not be allowed to re-offend. The victim of his crimes deserves better from our justice system. The men and women of ERO Boston will continue to protect our communities from such threats.”
The individual, who remained nameless, was taken into custody in the North Shore city of Gloucester and, despite an immigration detainer being issued against him by ERO Boston, was freed by the Gloucester District Court, authorities said.
Authorities think the 34-year-old entered the country illegally in April 2011 at an unidentified location without being checked in or granted entry by an immigration officer in the United States. A detention and arrest of him occurred later in December 2023.
The 34-year-old Guatemalan national was found guilty in January by Gloucester District Court of both an additional charge of assault and battery and indecent assault and battery on a minor under the age of fourteen.
The court mandated that he register with the state’s sex offender registry as a sexual offender. Nevertheless, the judge dismissed the immigration detainer against ERO Boston and allowed him to return to society.
The Guatemalan individual was unharmedly re-arrested by deportation authorities from ERO Boston on February 21 in Gloucester. He will stay in ICE custody while his removal from the country is being handled by a federal immigration judge through the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) of the Justice Department.
As part of ICE’s recent coordinated nationwide immigration enforcement action, ERO Boston conducted many arrests, including the seizure of the Guatemalan sex offender, according to officials.
A worldwide law enforcement action that lasted for several weeks beginning on February 5 resulted in the arrest of 275 unlawfully present non-citizen sex offenders by deportation officers from ERO field offices around the United States.