An illegal immigrant fugitive and murder suspect was spooked by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Chicago as he prepared to board a deportation flight to his native Honduras, where he is wanted on murder charges. He smiled.
ICE officer arrested Edwin Fernando Figueroa Martinez (35), who sneaked into the United States to escape. The agency announced Friday that the attack occurred in Lyons, Illinois, in August at an unknown location and time.
Figueroa-Martinez returned to Honduras by plane on Monday and was turned over to local authorities “without incident,” ICE said.
Sam Olson, director of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations Chicago field office, said in a statement that ICE “has a duty to protect communities across America.”
“We will do everything within our authority to locate, arrest, and detain noncitizens who seek to hide in our country from being held accountable for crimes in their homeland,” Olson said.
Over the past four years of the Biden administration, more than 1.7 million immigrants are known to have sneaked across the border as fugitives, evading arrest.
The number is likely higher, but they are not being detected by cameras along the border because the Biden administration has failed to repair 30% of broken detectors.
Tracing them will be a major challenge for the incoming Trump administration, which has vowed to deport millions of illegal immigrants.
Incoming border czar Tom Homan said the mass deportation plan would prioritize the arrest and deportation of immigrant criminals.
He recently told the Post that he expects the next administrator to pressure sanctuary cities to follow suit.
If they don't, he said, he will sue and block federal funding.
If that doesn't work, they will “flood” these cities with ICE agents, who will wait outside local jails for illegal immigrants to be released.
