The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Houston division arrested 3,593 criminal illegal immigrants from the Southeast Texas region during the federal government shutdown between Oct. 1 and Nov. 12, the agency said in a statement on Nov. 18.
Among the arrested are 10 illegal immigrants with outstanding criminal arrest warrants, 13 murderers, 23 gang members, 46 individuals convicted of weapons offenses, 51 child predators, and 67 sex offenders, according to ICE.
In addition, 103 people were convicted of burglary or theft, 261 convicted of aggravated assault, and 366 convicted of driving while intoxicated, the agency said.
“Other criminal convictions and charges represented among the criminal aliens arrested include aggravated kidnapping, drug-related offenses, weapons offenses, human trafficking, making terroristic threats, evading and resisting arrest, prostitution, hit-and-run, bribery, auto theft, forgery, falsifying documents, human smuggling, trespassing, arson, illegally operating a game room, illegal reentry, illegal entry, and numerous other crimes,” the statement added.
According to ICE, one of the arrested individuals was a 23-year-old MS-13 gang member from Honduras who is alleged to have committed a triple homicide in Dallas County, Texas. He was released in the United States in May last year.
Another individual, a 44-year-old convicted rapist from Mexico, was encountered by ICE in September 2023, but the agency could not take the person into custody or remove him from the country at the time due to the prior administration’s immigration enforcement guidelines.
The person went on to rape and assault a woman on Oct. 25, 2023, and was convicted of sexual assault and aggravated assault in August 2024, according to ICE.
“Our entire team understands how critical ICE’s mission is to public safety and national security,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford said.
“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.”
Democrats have criticized the Trump administration’s immigration operations and asked local authorities to take action against federal enforcement.
On Oct. 22, Reps Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.) issued a statement to this effect following reports of immigration operations in California’s San Francisco Bay Area.
California law prevents federal agents from taking certain actions in the state, according to the joint statement.
“While the President may enjoy absolute immunity courtesy of his rogue Supreme Court, those who operate under his orders do not. Our state and local authorities may arrest federal agents if they break California law—and if they are convicted, the President cannot pardon them,” the statement added.
On Oct. 23, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche warned California officials against taking such actions.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) “views any arrests of federal agents and officers in the performance of their official duties as both illegal and futile,” Blanche said.
“Numerous federal laws prohibit interfering with and impeding immigration or other law-enforcement operations.”
Meanwhile, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that the state was suing Harris County officials after they allocated more than $1.3 million in taxpayer funds to legally defend illegal immigrants against deportation.
The complaint argued that state laws prohibit local governments from spending public funds for civil purposes, such as federal deportation proceedings.
“We must stop the left-wing radicals who are robbing Texans to prevent illegals from being deported by the Trump Administration,” Paxton said in a statement.
According to an Oct. 27 statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), more than 527,000 illegal immigrants have been removed from the United States under the Trump administration.
In addition, 1.6 million illegal immigrants have voluntarily self-deported from the country.
“In the face of a historic number of injunctions from activist judges and threats to law enforcement, DHS, ICE, and CBP [Customs and Border Protection] have not just closed the border, but made historic strides to carry out President Trump’s promise of arresting and deporting illegal aliens who have invaded our country,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
