A man wanted for murder and other charges related to murder squad killings during El Salvador’s civil war has been deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Alvarado Benitez, 75, was deported by ICE officials in Philadelphia on Friday and turned over to law enforcement authorities in El Salvador for his role in the killing, according to ICE.
Members of the death squad are accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing five civilians in the village of San Andres in eastern El Salvador in April 1981. It is unclear exactly what role Mr. Benitez played in the killing or how long he had lived in the United States.
Alvarado Benitez (center) is wanted for murder and other charges related to death squad killings in the civil war. (ice)
Fulfilling the American dream: Carlos Castro fled the bloody civil war to start a new life for his family
This death squad was a far-right paramilitary group acting against Marxist-Leninist guerrilla forces, particularly the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMNL). El Salvador’s civil war began in October 1979 and lasted more than 12 years.
Camila Wamsley, head of the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) field office in Philadelphia, said multiple agencies assisted in Benitez’s deportation to El Salvador to face charges.
“The firing of Ángel Anibal Alvarado Benítez is a victory for cooperation between ERO Philadelphia, ERO Baltimore, HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) Baltimore, HSI San Salvador, and ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center.”Wamsley he said.
“It is my sincere hope that his return to the charges will bring some justice to the Salvadoran people for the atrocities they suffered during the civil war.”
Guerrilla fighters of El Salvador’s FMLN (Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional or Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) during the Salvadoran Civil War in 1983. (Scott Wallace/Getty Images)
American citizen arrested in El Salvador as part of nationwide crime crackdown
The agency’s efforts to investigate and ultimately return Alvarado Benitez to El Salvadoran authorities were initiated and supported by ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center (HRVWCC), with support from HSI attachés in San Salvador. It was done.
The HRVWCC was established in 2008 to further ICE’s efforts to identify, track and prosecute human rights abusers, ICE said in a statement. It leverages the expertise of a group of agents, historians, lawyers, intelligence and research experts, and analysts who direct the agency’s extensive enforcement efforts against these criminals.
In June 2023, HSI and ERO in Baltimore administratively arrested Alvarado Benitez and served him with a notice to appear in immigration court for being in the United States without testing.
Nayib Boucle is the current president of El Salvador. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
ERO Baltimore transferred Benitez to ERO Philadelphia at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Phillipsburg for deportation proceedings. The case was litigated by the Office of the Chief Counsel in Baltimore and an immigration judge ordered his removal to El Salvador. On February 9, Benitez’s dismissal order became administratively final.
ERO deports individuals who lack a legal basis to be in the United States, such as by order of an immigration judge in the Department of Justice’s Office of Immigration Review (EOIR). According to ICE, immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of individual cases and determine whether a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal or receives certain forms of relief from removal. It will determine whether you are eligible.
