LOS ANGELES−On Friday, April 24, in a targeted operation near South Gate, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) along with the Special Response Team (SRT) captured one of ICE’s most wanted fugitives.
According to the press release, Julio Garcia-Castellano, 33, who also goes by the alias, Victor Garcia Ignacio, is an aggravated felon and a Guatemalan National who is unlawfully present in the U.S. Garcia-Castellano was convicted of second-degree rape by the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon on February 1, 2010.
Garcia-Castellano was removed from the U.S. in 2007 and again in 2016. He was arrested in December 2019 on a Driving Under the Influence (DUI) charge. The charges for the DUI are pending. It is not clear how, where, or when Garcia-Castellano re-entered the country.
ERO agents were able to procure a federal warrant in Los Angeles for the arrest of Garcia-Castellano for the illegal reentry of a previously removed felon.
He was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) following ICE processing procedures.
ICE agents are currently focused on removing illegal aliens that are a public safety threat to society, have criminal records, convictions, are gang members or found in violation of US immigration laws by a federal judge.
ICE has removed 267,000 undocumented immigrants in the 2019 fiscal year. ERO has removed 143,000. Eighty-six percent of those removed were criminally convicted or had pending criminal charges.
