Five violent gang members were removed from the United States last week. DHS identified them as members of MS-13, the Sinaloa Cartel, the 18th Street gang, and the Latin Kings.
Their records include abduction, assault with a dangerous weapon, meth trafficking, burglary, vehicle theft, firearm crimes, and repeated illegal reentry.
From American Greatness:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continued deporting illegal aliens at a steady clip last week, including five violent gang members who were convicted for crimes such as abduction, assault, drug trafficking, and burglary.
More than 3 million illegal aliens have left the United States since the Trump administration began its crackdown on illegal immigration, a DHS spokesperson told American Greatness, Wednesday.
“In President Trump’s first year back in office, more than 3 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration including an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations,” the spokesman said. “As of August 4, we have now deported over 1 million illegal aliens and arrested over 1 million illegal aliens.”
...
“Last week, the brave men and women of ICE made our country safer by deporting illegal alien gang members, including kidnappers, violent assailants, drug traffickers, and burglars,” said Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “The Trump Administration is working hard every single day to undo the damage caused by the Biden Administration’s reckless open-border policies. We will never apologize for deporting illegal aliens, because that’s how we save lives.”
Somehow, stories like theirs rarely become the face of America's immigration debate.
The preferred emotional script usually looks different: ICE arrives, cameras find frightened relatives, activists denounce cruelty, schools worry, and local officials complain.
The Associated Press's report is a great example of stoking fear of lawful ICE agents:
The Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign is plowing ahead even in Democratic-led states like Connecticut that have laws seeking to limit Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s power. Nationwide, ICE arrests increased significantly in June and July, according to newly released data.
ICE officers, some wearing masks, have detained people outside Danbury apartment buildings, during traffic stops, in parks, near an elementary school, and outside a daycare center, according to the mayor and local activists tracking the operation that began Monday.
Agents detained one father who walked his child to a bus stop shortly after the school bus drove off, said Clementina Lunar, an advocate with the group Danbury Unites for Immigrants. Her group said that, as of Wednesday evening, more than 50 arrests had ripped apart 40 families, and many others were hiding in fear.
“We are talking about mothers with babies and school-age children who unfortunately had their breadwinner taken,” Lunar said. “ICE has been terrorizing” the city, she added.
Nearly one-third of the city’s 90,000 people are Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and slightly more were born in another country.
The Department of Homeland Security said its ICE agents had addressed several “public safety threats,” arresting at least four people convicted of violent crimes after entering the U.S. illegally.
Local, state and federal representatives from Connecticut held a news conference Wednesday to denounce ICE’s operation, which they said was traumatizing some young students just as they are returning to public schools.
“ICE does not target schools, but we will not allow criminals to hide in our nation’s schools and put the safety of children at risk,” the agency said.
One recent national story emphasized that more than half of those arrested nationwide had neither criminal convictions nor pending criminal charges. Those facts might be able to be legitimate news; after all, those people violated U.S. law by the way they entered the country.
When the dinosaur media leave out cases like these often enough, though, Americans get a carefully edited picture in which every illegal immigrant arrives carrying rainbows, good intentions, and apparently a generous supply of unicorn flatulence.
Consider Erik Alexis Valladares-Corea, a Honduran MS-13 member. Federal prosecutors said a grand jury indicted him in May 2025 for illegal reentry and possession of a firearm and ammunition by an illegal alien. He had already been removed in May 2020, and ICE deported him again on Aug. 24.
Balmore Vladimir Hernandez-Lopez, an MS-13 member from El Salvador, had a conviction for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and arrests involving human trafficking, prison contraband, and resisting an officer. He had already been deported several times; ICE removed him again on Aug. 25.
Enrique Carrasco-Polanco, a Mexican national tied to the Sinaloa Cartel, had convictions involving conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, a firearm used in furtherance of drug trafficking, drug possession, and illegal entry. He had been deported three times before ICE removed him again on Aug. 29.
Abner Geovani Del Valle-Lemus, a Guatemalan member of the 18th Street gang, had convictions for battery, possession of a stolen vehicle, vehicle theft, burglary, and vandalism.
Brian Damian Iglesias-Rodiguez, a Uruguayan Latin Kings member, had convictions including assault, burglary of a vehicle, receiving stolen property, drug offenses, obstruction of police, and criminal trespass.
Both were deported in late August.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin called the removals part of the Trump administration's effort to undo the consequences of Biden-era border policy.
Mullin, confirmed in March, also made a point politicians rarely make plain enough: the administration will not apologize for deporting illegal aliens who pose threats to American communities.
The press continually criticizes President Donald Trump's immigration policies. Enforcement tactics deserve scrutiny, as they should in our society. But journalism loses something vital when one side gets a microphone while violent gang members repeatedly crossing the border become an inconvenient footnote.
Five gang members are gone; several returned after earlier deportations, and their criminal histories were not traffic tickets or paperwork violations. Americans should know about them for the same reason they should know about legitimate controversial ICE raids if they do occur.
Both belong in the story.
If the national press wants to honestly cover immigration, it has to show the people ICE is removing even when their records make Trump's policy look necessary.
Those men existed, and ICE deported them.
Americans deserve to hear about it.
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