Foreign Fugitive Deported for Alleged Kidnapping

HOUSTON — A Mexican national wanted for kidnapping in his home country was deported Friday by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). 

Jilberto Salazar Perez, 38, was escorted to the Juarez Lincoln Port in Laredo, Texas, and turned over to Mexico’s Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) June 19.

“Identifying and removing foreign fugitives from the United States is an ICE priority,” said Steven P. Boll, field office director of ERO Houston. “The cooperation between the United States and Mexican governments resulted in this foreign fugitive being safely returned to his home country where he will face justice.”

Perez was turned over to ICE from the U.S. Marshals Service May 11 following his second conviction for illegally re-entering the U.S. after being deported. On that same date, during an indices check, an arrest warrant revealed that he is wanted for kidnapping in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico.

Perez was previously deported from the United States in June 1996, and again in July 2007. He was twice convicted for illegally re-entering the United States in the Southern District of Texas in July 2007 and May 2015. He was also convicted in 2006 of possessing cocaine and placed on five years’ probation.

In fiscal year 2014, ERO removed 315,943 individuals from the United States. In addition to convicted criminals, the agency's enforcement priorities include those apprehended while attempting to unlawfully enter the United States, illegal re-entrants — individuals who returned to the United States after being previously removed by ICE — and immigration fugitives. In fiscal year 2014, 98 percent of ICE removals met these priorities.

Since Oct. 1, 2009, ERO has removed more than 720 foreign fugitives from the United States who were being sought in their native countries for serious crimes, including kidnapping, rape and murder.  ERO works with ICE's Office of International Operations, foreign consular offices in the United States, and Interpol to identify foreign fugitives illegally present in the country.