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FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security is slamming pro-sanctuary politicians for “peddling a false sob story” about alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia while the agency continues its roundup of criminal illegal aliens, including illegals convicted of forced sodomy, injury of a child and sexual assault of a child.
In a statement sent to Fox News Digital, DHS said, “While Sanctuary politicians and activists were peddling the false sob story of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a gang member, human trafficker, child predator, and wife beater, ICE was out arresting the worst of the worst.”
Among the aliens arrested by DHS on Monday is Mexican illegal immigrant Arturo Lopez-Ramirez, who has been convicted of sodomy by force in Alameda County, California.
Another, Julio-Cesar Lopez-Rivera, an illegal from Mexico, was convicted of injury to a child in Dallas County, Texas.
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Top left to right: Arturo Lopez-Ramirez, Julio-Cesar Lopez-Rivera, Edgar Stiven Rivera-Villanueva. Bottom left to right: Salvador Hernandez-Aguilar and Darlin Josue Martinez-Espinoza. (Mugshots courtesy of DHS and background image Fox News)
Elsewhere in Texas, Honduran illegal Darlin Josue Martinez-Espinoza was arrested after being convicted of aggravated sexual assault with a child, indecency with a child, and driving while intoxicated in Austin.
In Queens, New York, DHS said it arrested a Honduran illegal alien, Edgar Stiven Rivera-Villanueva, who it said was convicted of attempted gang assault.
Not far away, another illegal immigrant from Mexico, Salvador Hernandez-Aguilar, was arrested after being convicted of two counts of theft of a motor vehicle and resisting arrest in Middlesex County, New Jersey.
DHS said these five criminal illegal aliens represent some of the worst of the worst arrested in just one day, as it continues its crackdown on illegal immigrant crime.
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Federal immigration authorities make an arrest in Arlington, Virginia, in February. (ICE)
The agency said, “From Texas to New York to California, ICE officers are removing the worst of the worst violent offenders from our streets and sending a clear message: America is no longer a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens.”
“In just one day, ICE officers across the U.S. nabbed illegal aliens with convictions for sexual assault with a child, sodomy, vehicle theft, and more barbaric crimes,” a senior DHS official told Fox News Digital in an emailed statement.
“On day one, President Trump unleashed ICE law enforcement to go after depraved criminals who are terrorizing American communities,” wrote the senior official. “While sanctuary politicians and the media were peddling a FALSE sob story of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, our brave ICE law enforcement was arresting the worst of the worst.”
This comes as many Democratic leaders have expressed outrage over DHS arresting Abrego Garcia, who is a Salvadoran national, on Monday and threatening to deport him to Uganda. Federal Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee, ruled on Monday to temporarily block the administration from deporting Abrego Garcia.
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Surrounded by reporters, Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura enter a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on Aug. 25, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Abrego Garcia was deported to his home country, El Salvador, earlier this year, but later returned to the U.S. to stand trial on human smuggling charges. DHS has previously presented evidence suggesting Abrego Garcia is also a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13 and that he previously beat his wife, leading to the agency labeling him a “public safety threat.”
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Chris Newman, an attorney for Abrego Garcia’s family, has categorically denied those claims, telling Fox News Digital, “None of those things are true, full stop.”
“The problem here is that the administration is trying its hardest to litigate this case through the media, as opposed to through courts of law,” claimed Newman.
DHS called it “insane” that “sanctuary politicians chose to glorify and stand with an MS-13 gang member over the safety of American citizens.”
The agency said that Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem “are not going to allow this illegal alien—who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator—to terrorize American citizens any longer.”
