More than 120 illegal aliens were arrested on Texas roadways in the greater Houston area in a single day. The operation that stretched into the late hours of October 29 cleared the roads of often unlicensed and uninsured illegal aliens, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
A social media post on Sunday shows a video of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers carrying out the arrests in a parking lot near a Houston-area business and during several vehicle stops. The video described the activities with a statement saying, “We made over 120 arrests in Houston Oct.29-clearing our roads of dangerous, often uninsured, illegal aliens who should NOT be behind the wheel.”
As reported by Breitbart Texas, ERO officers and other federal agents in the greater Houston area have ramped up day and nighttime operations in targeted operations that have resulted in multiple arrests of illegal aliens around local businesses and on Houston roadways. During one nighttime sweep just days before the latest operation, Breitbart Texas’s Bob Price rode with a team of 40 federal officers and agents as the group arrested approximately 25 illegal aliens, many with criminal records.
Moving through Houston’s high-crime corridors, Breitbart Texas observed the officers and agents, now armed with a new data-driven targeting system that seemed to send a clear message: ICE is now a 24/7 presence in Texas. Despite a torrential downpour, the weather was no deterrent for the ICE agents in completing their assigned mission.
ICE Launches Intensive Weekend Crackdown Targeting Houston High-Crime Areas (Bob Price/Breitbart Texas)
The enhanced ICE operations have caused panic among Houston’s illegal alien population. According to a Migration Policy Institute report, an estimated 500,000 illegal aliens are believed to reside in the greater Houston area as of 2019. During one recent operation on October 27, ICE arrested Marlon Odir Gomez-Hernandez, a 29-year-old illegal alien and suspected MS-13 gang member from El Salvador, after he became precariously stuck on the sign of a Houston-area business while attempting to flee from officers.
Illegal aliens arrested after attempting to flee from federal officers. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
GOMEZ-Hernandez was encountered during a targeted enforcement operation in the Houston area and fled from agents to avoid arrest. He ran inside a local washateria, climbed through the ceiling panels to get on the roof of the business, and then climbed down to the sign hanging on the wall, where he became stuck. Luckily, ICE agents were able to pull GOMEZ-Hernandez to safety, likely saving his life. He was taken to the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas, where he remains pending his deportation hearing.
Gomez had good reason to run, according to ICE, he entered the U.S. on an unknown date after he was arrested in El Salvador with six other suspected MS-13 gang members on Jan. 26, 2022, for aggravated extortion.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Before his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
