Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently arrested a known El Salvadoran fugitive who had a warrant for his arrest issued in his home country.
Cristian Alberto Rivas-Escalante, 29, was picked up at a work site on Marco Island, Fla., in mid-June, reports said. He is one of thousands of criminal aliens being targeted for removal from the country under President Donald Trump’s mass deportation directive.
“(ICE) came to the Island to locate and arrest an individual with an outstanding fugitive warrant. Contrary to some concerns, this was not an immigration raid,” David Ennis, a captain with the Marco Island Police Department (MIPD), noted in an email statement to media and posted on the department’s social media accounts.
“Agents were specifically focused on locating one individual who was working in the area due to his past criminal activity,” Ennis added.
Rivas-Escalante was living in Southwest Florida, off the island somewhere, according to Mike Meares, ICE public affairs officer in Tampa in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Rivas-Escalante entered the United States illegally in 2015 and is wanted in his home country of El Salvador, according to Meares, who was in Marco Island at the time of the arrest. Classified as a “criminal alien,” Rivas-Escalante is identified as an associate of the 18th Street Gang.
The 18th Street Gang is a known rival of MS-13, which the U.S. Department of State officially designated as a foreign terrorist organization on February 20. MS-13 was originally formed in Los Angeles and expanded rapidly throughout Central America after many of its members were deported, the Naples Daily News reported.
The El Salvador criminal warrant against Rivas-Escalante is for “illicit associations with the 18th Street Gang,” Meares said.
Rivas-Escalante was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol near Hidalgo, Texas, in December 2015 after illegally entering the U.S., according to Meares. An Immigration Judge subsequently granted Rivas-Escalante a bond, allowing “him an opportunity to contest his immigration case while residing in the community.”
On June 11, Rivas-Escalante was taken into custody in Marco Island by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Fugitive Operations Team, with support from ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Fort Myers, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Marco Island Police Department.
“He is a criminal alien here illegally,” Meares said. “We had a plan to go get him.”
The Trump administration has been steadily raising detention quotas, leading to a significant increase in the number of migrants held daily. According to ICE data, more than 51,000 individuals were in custody as of June 1, an increase of over 30% since January 12.
At the time the agency was funded to house approximately 41,500 detainees, Reuters reported, as cited by USA Today, that capacity has already been exceeded. But ICE received an injection of tens of billions in additional funding since then via passage of the Big, Beautiful Bill last month.
“He was arrested for being a foreign fugitive,” Meares said. “We will still have to go to immigration proceedings here. Here very soon, he’ll go through immigration proceedings while in our custody. … Ultimately, he will be removed and be handed over to El Salvadorian officials.”
Meanwhile, a Democratic state lawmaker who tipped off her community about ICE operations could face obstruction-of-justice charges, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News this week.
Following Arizona state Senator Analise Ortiz’s admission on social media that she had alerted residents to ICE activity, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Fox News that Ortiz was prioritizing “illegal criminals over American citizens.”
Responding to Fox News’ inquiry about whether Ortiz could face charges, McLaughlin said, “This certainly looks like obstruction of justice.”