DHS confirms cartel bounties on ICE and CBP agents in Chicago
Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin says Mexican cartels and U.S. gangs are offering up to $50,000 for attacks on federal officers in a coordinated campaign targeting ICE and CBP agents on ‘America Reports.’
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EXCLUSIVE: With over 500,000 illegal aliens deported since President Donald Trump took office in January, the administration is on track to significantly exceed the record number of illegals deported out of the United States.
Since Trump’s return to the Oval Office on Jan. 20, the administration has deported over 515,000 illegal aliens, according to a high-ranking official at the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital the administration is “on pace to shatter historic records” by deporting 600,000 illegals by the end of Trump’s first year back in office. She said that in total, more than two million illegal aliens have left the U.S., including 1.6 million who voluntarily self-deported, as well as the over 515,000 deportations. Another 485,000 illegal aliens have been arrested by DHS since Trump took office.
McLaughlin said that “this is just the beginning” and that Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “have jumpstarted an agency that was vilified and barred from doing its job for the last four years.”
DEM JUDGE IN HOT SEAT AFTER DHS EXPOSES ‘WHOLE NEW LEVEL’ OF ACTIVISM, SHELTERING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT
A high-ranking Homeland Security official said the administration is set to “shatter” the record for illegal aliens deported in President Trump’s first year. (White House; Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)
“Illegal aliens are hearing our message to leave now or face the consequence. Migrants are now even turning back before they reach our borders,” said McLaughlin, pointing to what she said has been a 99.99 percent drop in migration through Panama’s Darien Gap, which is a key migration route to the U.S.
“In the face of a historic number of injunctions from activist judges, ICE, CBP, and the U.S. Coast Guard have made historic progress to carry out President Trump’s promise of arresting and deporting illegal aliens who have invaded our country.”
Just this weekend, DHS said that it continued its sweep of the “worst of the worst” criminal illegal aliens across the country amidst the ongoing government shutdown. Over the weekend, DHS said it arrested illegals convicted of rape of a child, assault, hit-and-run, kidnapping and other crimes.
One of those arrested was Erick Xavier Romero, a Dominican national, who the agency said was convicted of rape of a child in Boston. Another illegal, Guatemalan national, German Osvaldo Cortez-Chajon, was arrested this weekend after being convicted of traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act in Dale County, Alabama. A third illegal, Mexican national Graciano Lopez-Flores, was arrested following a conviction of indecent liberties with a child in Orange County, North Carolina.
DHS FLIPS SCRIPT ON MEDIA NARRATIVE WITH NEW DETAILS ABOUT ILLEGAL TEEN ARRESTED BY ICE: ‘SAFETY THREAT’
Left to right, from top: Erick Xavier Romero, German Osvaldo Cortez-Chajon, Graciano Lopez-Flores, Shahed Hassan, Van Pham, Patricia Pimental-Cordero, Ramona Mercado-Vasquez and Karlett Zagal-Salazar. (ICE; DHS)
Also in North Carolina, ICE arrested Shahed Hassan, an illegal from Bangladesh, who was convicted of simple assault, possession of drug paraphernalia, illegally carrying a concealed gun, driving while impaired, probation violation, felony larceny and domestic violence protection order violation in Wake County.
Just to the north, ICE arrested Van Pham from Laos, who was convicted of five counts of abduction and burglary in Fairfax County, Virginia.
In Massachusetts, ICE arrested Patricia Pimental-Cordero, from the Dominican Republic, who was convicted of two counts of hit-and-run in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Another illegal, Ramona Mercado-Vasquez from the Caribbean island of Dominica, was arrested by ICE in Bergen County, New Jersey, following a conviction for kidnapping and robbery.
In Wisconsin, ICE arrested Mexican national Karlett Zagal-Salazar, who was convicted of drug trafficking.
ICE REVEALS ‘DISTURBING DETAILS’ AFTER AGENCY RESCUED 3-YEAR-OLD ABDUCTED TO MEXICO
Shackled migrants board a transport van after getting off a plane at the Valley International Airport, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in Harlingen, Texas. (Michael Gonzalez/AP Photo)
Commenting on the arrests, McLaughlin told Fox News Digital that “nothing—not even a government shutdown—will slow us down from making America safe again.”
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She slammed the Democratic Party, saying, “While Democrats in Congress continue to keep the government shutdown, our ICE law enforcement officers aren’t slowing down in arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens.”
