Four of the migrant squatters busted at a Bronx home on gun and drug charges had skipped out on processing appointments with Immigration and Customs Enforcement after being released into the US, the agency revealed Wednesday.
And at least three of the eight Venezuelan migrants arrested by the NYPD in the March 27 raid on the multifamily dwelling had past run-ins with law enforcement, ICE also confirmed.
Yoessy Pino Castillo, Yojairo Martinez, Javier Alborno and Yerbin Lozado-Munoz, 25, were all detained by US Border Patrol in Texas between September 2022 and May 2023, but were then cut free because of overcrowding at processing centers.
Johan Cardenas Silva was also taken into custody in October 2022 in the Lone Star State and was ordered for removal, ICE said.
The following March, an immigration judge determined Silva should be booted from the US, but seven months later the 35-year-old was released from Stewart County Detention Center on an order of supervision to report to the Big Apple.
Once in New York City, Silva failed to show up for a Enforcement and Removal Operations appointment, ICE said.
And the four others had failed to appear for their processing appointments.
At the check-ins, migrants are supposed to file a claim, that could be for asylum, and let officials know where they are staying. Immigration officials can then determine what level of supervision is required.
Meanwhile Hector Desousa-Villalta, 24, who last Wednesday allegedly flashed a pistol at someone on the Bronx property, leading to the stunning squatter discovery, was taken into custody by US Border Patrol on May, 3, 2023.
Desousa-Villalta was issued a notice to appear before he was let go on his own recognizance, ICE said. He is one of three migrants who had previous arrests under their belts before the eight Venezuelans were booked on gun and drug charges.
Desousa-Villalta was arrested and charged for attempted murder by Yonkers police last year, but the case was later dropped because the victim didn’t want to cooperate, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell previously said.
Alborno had the longest rap sheet, beginning in March 2023 when the NYPD arrested him for petit larceny and released on his own recognizance.
He was arrested again in June 2023 on a shoplifting charge in New Jersey and the following September in New York City again on second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, ICE said.
This past January Woodbridge police in New Jersey cuffed Alborno for shoplifting before he was released later that month on his own recognizance, ICE said.
Castillo was arrested this January on shoplifting charges, according to ICE.
ICE did not provide background on Miguel Vaamondes-Barrios, who is currently locked up in Rikers. The agency issued a detainer request on him and three of the other migrants currently in custody in the city or Nassau County.
Three of migrants, Desousa-Villalta, Martinez, 42, and Castillo, 20, were captured again on Wednesday – this time by the feds — in the same home on Hull Avenue as ICE signaled deportation proceedings would begin against the trio of Venezuelan natives.
“Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) New York City (NYC) is aware of the recent arrests by NYPD of eight unlawfully present Venezuelan citizens,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.
“Today, ERO NYC Fugitive Operations Officers conducted a targeted law enforcement action at 3259 Hull Avenue in the Bronx and apprehended three of those eight noncitizens who are all amenable to removal.
“ERO NYC also lodged ICE detainers on four of the remaining noncitizens who are currently being held in local custody.”
Only one of the eight migrants caught up in last week’s raid remains in the wind after being released by a Bronx judge.
Additional reporting by Steve Janoski
