ICE arrested 422 illegal aliens—more than half with criminal convictions and final orders of removal—during a recent week-long immigration sweep in Houston.
Fox News reports more than 300 officers came together to nab some of the most high-profile criminals, including an illegal migrant wanted in Colombia on murder charges.
According to ICE, of the 422 arrests, 262 had criminal convictions, 34 had pending convictions, 126 had other immigration violations, and 229 had final orders of removal.
In a Fox News exclusive, Dallas-based correspondent Brooke Taylor embedded with ICE agents for 10 hours during the roundup. ICE officers arrested an illegal alien they say is wanted for murder in Colombia at his apartment complex.
“He has a homicide conviction in Colombia and was sentenced to 21 years there,” ICE Houston Director Bret Bradford said.
Bradford told Fox he entered the United States illegally in February of 2024 and was apprehended by Border Patrol. Despite the murder conviction, he was given a court date for an immigration hearing and released into the community under President Joe Biden’s catch-and-release policies.
He did not show up for that court date. In March, an immigration judge ordered his removal from the United States, Bradford said.
“Obviously, with a homicide conviction, this is a serious violent offender,” Bradford said in the Fox report. “These are certainly not folks we want in the community.”
Another arrest involved a 72-year-old migrant from Mexico who was ordered removed from the U.S. in 2018, and has been convicted of homicide, robbery, shoplifting and assault.
“The biggest thing for me is public safety,” Bradford told Fox News. “If you’re in this country illegally and engaged in criminal activity, we’re coming for you.”
ICE arrests 422 illegal migrants in Houston sweep, including suspects wanted for murder, arson.
ICE says more than half of the arrested illegal aliens in Houston had criminal convictions.https://t.co/f2QNS2FHpF pic.twitter.com/VoKuJ9njos— (Jason) Stands For Truth (@TrueJMitchell) May 12, 2025
In another incident caught on video, Hector Castillo-Garcia, a 40-year-old twice-deported criminal alien from Mexico, tried to drive away in his vehicle and then ran on foot before he eventually taken down by officers.
Castillo-Garcia was convicted of several charges while in the U.S. illegally, including arson, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and driving while intoxicated, according to ICE.
ICE arrests 422 illegal migrants in Houston sweep, including suspects wanted for murder, arson https://t.co/dPQJuEO1yl #FoxNews
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) May 13, 2025
The Houston ICE Field Office has an operation center with analysts who focus on finding these wanted criminals and illegal aliens with deportation orders. They target “the worst of the worst” plus the ones they think they can locate and arrest, Bradford told Fox.
“They are doing the database research to get the worst of the worst, the ones who have the most significant threat to public safety,” Bradford said. “And then we want to look at the information we have on that individual, make sure it’s a viable target, make sure we have good addresses.”
The breakdown of criminal convictions include:
Murder: 1
Robbery: 6
Sexual Assault (adult): 6
Sexual Assault-Child/Minor: 5
Aggravated Assault: 24
Assault: 35
Burglary: 6
Driving While Intoxicated: 48
Narcotics-related Offenses: 37
Forgery/Fraud: 10
Obstruction/Resisting Arrest: 21
Smuggling Aliens: 10
Terroristic Threat: 5
Vehicle Theft: 6
Weapons Offense: 9
Gang Members/Affiliates Arrested: 5
To facilitate removals, ICE has started transferring those with final removal orders to designated hubs, where they are deported immediately to their home countries.
Bradford called it a “hub and spoke” system, which speeds up the removal process.
“We can arrest the individual this morning, process him this afternoon, and have him on a removal flight this evening, same day, saving taxpayer cost and just making it more efficient and expedited process to get these folks out of the country,” Bradford said.
Fox News also got exclusive footage of 80 detainees in Houston boarding one of the flights bound for the El Paso, Texas, hub.
This latest ICE Houston sweep follows one that took place March 17-28 and resulted in the deportation of 174 criminal aliens, including 24 gang members, to Mexico, according to an ICE news release. As a group, they had 610 criminal convictions and 415 removals from the United States.
