Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to arrest illegal migrants with serious criminal histories, despite ongoing violence by rioters opposed to the Trump administration’s enforcement actions.
ICE agents successfully apprehended illegal migrants convicted of homicide, lewd action with a child, drug trafficking and other heinous activity on Monday and Tuesday, according to a Wednesday press release from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The department says the criminal violence by anti-ICE rioters will not deter their mission to apprehend and remove dangerous illegal migrants from American communities.
“Murderers, pedophiles, and drug traffickers. These are the types of criminal illegal aliens that rioters are fighting to protect,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a prepared statement. “How much longer will Governor Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass continue to prioritize these criminal illegal aliens over their own citizens?”
“Secretary Noem has a message to the LA rioters: you will not stop us or slow us down,” McLaughlin continued. “ICE will continue to enforce the law and arrest criminal illegal aliens.”
Among the illegal migrants arrested on Monday and Tuesday were Gerardo Antonio-Palacios, a Mexican national convicted of homicide and burglary, and Mab Khleb, a Cambodian national convicted of lewd action with a child, battery and possession of a controlled substance, according to DHS.
Those two men were far from the only criminal illegal migrants recently nabbed by ICE agents in the Los Angeles area.
Sang Louangprasert, a Laotian national convicted for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14, and Antonio Benitez-Ugarte, a Mexican national convicted of drug trafficking, were also arrested by deportation officers. Alberto Morales-Mejia, a Mexican man convicted of manufacturing amphetamine, and Raul Teran-Guillen, a Mexican national previously arrested for human smuggling and money laundering, were also among a slate of others apprehended by ICE agents.
ICE’s Los Angeles agents arrested numerous illegal migrants convicted of second degree murder, child molestation, cruelty to a child and a slate of other horrific crimes earlier in June, according to DHS.
Vietnamese national Cuong Chanh Phan — the illegal migrant convicted of second degree murder — opened fire at a high school graduation party in 1994 alongside his fellow gang members, killing two teenagers and wounding several others, the Trump administration confirmed.
Despite President Donald Trump’s focus on illegal migrants with serious criminal backgrounds, anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles — a city with official policies prohibiting cooperation between ICE agents and local officials — began taking over earlier in June and quickly escalated into full-scale riots. On Friday night, more than 1,000 rioters surrounded a federal building, defaced government property, assaulted agents and slashed tires, ICE confirmed in a previous public statement.
Since the rioting and violence began on Friday, over 160 individuals have been arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department, according to the New York Times. While many are charged with failure to disperse, some stand accused of more serious charges, such as assault with a deadly weapon, looting and attempted murder.
DHS confirmed on Wednesday that the rioter charged with attempted murder, Emiliano Garduno-Galvez, is a previously deported illegal migrant from Mexico. Garduno-Galvez — previously arrested for grand theft and DUI — is suspected of throwing a Molotov cocktail at law enforcement amid the LA riots.
Emiliano Garduno-Galvez is a criminal illegal alien from Mexico who threatened the lives of federal law enforcement officers by attacking them with a Molotov cocktail during the violent riots in Los Angeles,” McLaughlin said. “And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
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