A criminal illegal alien suspected of being a gang member is in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after being released from a New York prison.
Josue Coreas-Chavez, 29, entered the U.S. illegally in 2014 from El Salvador, and was in prison at the Wyoming Correctional Facility in Attica for an attempted robbery conviction.
According to ICE, Coreas-Chavez is suspected to be a member of the violent MS-13 gang.
ATTICA, NEW YORK: @EROBuffalo has ARRESTED a criminal illegal MS-13 GANG MEMBER.
Josue Coreas-Chavez, from El Salvador, was arrested after his release from Wyoming Correctional Facility. He was sentenced in 2025 for charges including second-degree attempted robbery, conspiracy,… https://t.co/VbLsstvm5v pic.twitter.com/O5e9XEUBGq
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) May 18, 2026
ICE’s Buffalo detained Coreas-Chavez on April 18, and he’s awaiting deportation proceedings, the agency said in a news release.
“In January 2025, the Suffolk County Court sentenced Coreas-Chavez to three years of incarceration and five years of supervised release for second-degree attempted robbery,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Executive Associate Director Marcos Charles said. “He also received a sentence of one to three years for conspiracy and an additional 364 days for criminal facilitation.”
Charles added that Coreas-Chavez “faces additional felony and misdemeanor charges, including robbery, kidnapping, assault, coercion, unlawful imprisonment and grand larceny.”
Coreas-Chavez was detained by U.S. Border Patrol after illegally entering when he was 17, but he was admitted to the Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement and released to his father, who lived in New York.
“ICE officers have been vilified simply for enforcing the law,” Republican U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York said in a post on X. “Grateful for the courageous officers in ICE Buffalo who arrested a MS-13 gang member immediately after his prison release. Their mission protects American communities.”
ICE officers have been vilified simply for enforcing the law.
Grateful for the courageous officers in ICE Buffalo who arrested a MS-13 gang member immediately after his prison release. Their mission protects American communities. https://t.co/L2ON6OjcD4
— Rep. Claudia Tenney (@RepTenney) May 19, 2026
