An illegal migrant will be spending decades in prison after punching and strangling an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.
Diego Barron-Esquivel, a criminal illegal migrant from Mexico, was sentenced to two decades in federal prison for violently assaulting and choking out an ICE agent earlier this year in Wichita, Kansas, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) exclusively shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The sentence — which was the maximum penalty allowed — follows unprecedented violence against immigration officers.
“This barbaric criminal illegal alien with a rap sheet a mile long, violently punched one of our officers in the face and head and then began strangling the officer with his own badge cord,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a prepared statement. “Our officers are facing a 1150% increase in violence against them as they arrest the worst of the worst.”
“Secretary Noem has been clear: if you lay a hand on law enforcement, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” McLaughlin said.
Diego Barron-Esquivel. DHS image.
Barron-Esquivel, who entered the United States at an unknown time and location, violently resisted arrest when two ICE agents targeted him in the Wichita area on Feb. 28, according to DHS. The Mexican national punched one of the agents in the face and head, and then strangled the agent with his own badge cord, rendering him nearly unconscious until the agent successfully broke the cord.
While he was able to flee from the deportation officers at the time, Barron-Esquivel was ultimately arrested by local law enforcement, according to DHS.
The illegal migrant — who had been accused of repeatedly harassing his ex-spouse at the time of his run-in with ICE agents — carries an extensive criminal rap sheet, such as arrests for domestic battery, aggravated robbery, felony theft, possession of drug paraphernalia, damage to property, molestation of an automobile and other criminal activity.
On Dec. 3, Barron-Esquivel pled guilty to one count of forcible assault of a federal officer, according to DHS. His prosecution follows repeated pledges by top members of the Trump administration that those who harm ICE agents or any other federal officers will face the consequences.
Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, there have been 238 assaults on ICE law enforcement, according to the latest numbers released by the administration. These numbers equate to a more than 1,150% increase in assaults and violent actions against ICE officers compared to the same time frame in 2024 under the Biden administration.
The threat against ICE has dramatically escalated from assaults to full-blown coordinated murder attempts against agents.
The Department of Justice previously apprehended ten suspects accused of coordinating an armed July 4 attack on an ICE building in Alvarado, Texas, and shooting a local police officer in the neck. On Sept. 24, 29-year-old Joshua Jahn fired multiple rounds atop a Dallas rooftop with the purported intention of hitting ICE agents who were nearby and conducting enforcement activities.
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