ICE arrests 15 illegal immigrants with convictions including homicide, rape and child sex crimes over weekend

EXCLUSIVE: Federal immigration authorities arrested more than a dozen illegal immigrants with criminal histories over the weekend, many of whom had convictions for charges including homicide, rape, child sex crimes, and drug trafficking.

The 15 arrests came as the Trump administration continues to ramp up its deportation agenda through sweeping interior enforcement, while simultaneously removing protections for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and drastically expanding detention capacity.

“Over the weekend, while Americans attended the Great American State Fair and enjoyed their summer weekends, the men and women of ICE were hard at work arresting criminal illegal aliens convicted of homicide, child sexual abuse, assault, rape, and drug trafficking,” said Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, ICE will continue to protect Americans by arresting and removing criminal illegal aliens from our country.”

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Those arrested over the weekend include:

• Martin Gutierrez-Gaona, a Mexican citizen convicted in Los Angeles of evading a peace officer, possession of a controlled narcotic substance, forgery, and assault with a deadly weapon (other than a firearm) on a peace officer or firefighter causing great bodily injury.
• Carlos Augusto Melendez-Reales, a Colombian citizen previously convicted in Tampa, Florida, of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine while aboard a vessel.
• Carl Winston Ellis, a Jamaican national with convictions in Las Vegas for possession with intent to distribute and illegal re-entry into the United States.
• Jose Daniel Lara-Zavala, a Mexican citizen previously convicted of driving under the influence and homicide (willful killing with a gun) in Wilson, North Carolina.
• Odelio Lopez-Lopez, a Mexican national convicted in California of burglary, possession of burglary tools, cruelty toward a child, cruelty toward a wife, and aggravated domestic assault.
• Natanio Jimenez-Garcia, an illegal immigrant from Mexico with convictions for aggravated rape and fraud in Louisiana.

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Nine others arrested had criminal convictions for a range of offenses, including child sex crimes, assault with a deadly weapon and witness tampering.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin recently stated that the agency is on track to surpass deportation figures from 2025, a year that saw 442,000 formal deportations and removals, with DHS reporting over 605,000 total removals overall.

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“In fact, within the next six weeks, we’ll probably pass what we deported in all of 2025,” Mullin said in a video posted Monday by the Trump administration’s Rapid Response account on X.

In addition to targeting violent criminals for deportation, immigration authorities have also focused on those committing fraud and those who obtained U.S. citizenship fraudulently.