(The Center Square) – High-risk and violent criminals continue to be apprehended and deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Texas.

The latest includes more than 100 Chinese nationals being deported as well as Mexican and Venezuelan fugitives and alleged murderers illegally living in Texas.

This month, 122 Chinese nationals identified as high risk and all living in the U.S. illegally were deported to China, put on a flight out of Dallas, ICE announced.

They included 96 men and 26 women with final removal orders from a federal immigration judge. The Chinese nationals, between the ages of 19 and 68, were detained in ICE facilities across the country prior to being transported to Dallas for their removal.

“Through our interagency partnerships and coordination across ICE field offices, we have successfully removed these individuals, many who were convicted of egregious crimes,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Dallas acting Field Office Director Josh Johnson said. “This operation not only enhances the public safety of our communities across the U.S. but also strengthens national security. Our colleagues at ICE come to work every day to identify, arrest and remove illegal aliens who attempt to circumvent our nation’s immigrations laws.”

The Chinese nationals included those convicted of murder/homicide, lewd/lascivious acts with a minor, human smuggling, rape, and drug trafficking.

ICE highlighted notable removals, including, a 47-year-old man convicted of murder; a 49-year-old man convicted of drug trafficking; a 27-year-old man convicted of rape; a 50-year-old woman convicted of bribery; and a 55-year-old man convicted of human smuggling.

In another major ICE-Dallas enforcement action, a Mexican national was arrested and deported after being on the run from Mexican authorities for 20 years, wanted for murder.

ICE agents arrested Jesus Vazquez Daniel, a 59-year-old “illegal alien … on the run for the past 20 years after he allegedly murdered a Mexican national in Hidalgo, Mexico, Oct. 1, 2004,” ICE said.

Vazquez was detained in an ICE facility in Conroe and transported to the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge Port of Entry in Laredo where he was turned over to Mexican authorities.

“For the past 20 years, this accused murderer evaded authorities while the family of his alleged victim was forced to wait patiently praying that justice might one day be served,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford said. “Thanks to outstanding teamwork and unyielding persistence by ICE officers from the Dallas and Houston field offices, that wait has finally come to an end.”

Vazquez illegally entered the U.S. “on an unknown date and at an unknown location without inspection, admission or parole,” ICE said, meaning he was a gotaway. Gotaway is the official term for foreign nationals who illegally enter the U.S. between ports of entry to intentionally avoid capture and don’t file immigration claims. A record more than two million gotaways illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, The Center Square first reported.

Last July, ICE ERO-Dallas notified ICE ERO-Houston that they received information that Vazquez was potentially living in the Hillsboro area. ICE ERO Houston’s Waco office agents investigated and confirmed he was and there was an open warrant in Mexico for his arrest. It took another seven months for ICE officers, working with the Hill County Sheriff’s Office and ATF agents, to arrest him in February. He was then transported to the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, where he was placed into immigration proceedings. In May, a federal immigration judge ordered his removal to Mexico.

In another recent ICE operation in north Texas, ICE ERO Dallas and North Texas Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Strike Force members arrested a fugitive wanted by Venezuelan authorities for the alleged contract killing of four people.

In this operation, law enforcement officers from the DEA, FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and ICE-Dallas apprehended Anthony Fabian Marin La Torre, 42, in Grapevine.

They did so after being notified in February by Venezuelan authorities that Marin was wanted for the contract killings of four individuals in Venezuela.

“This fugitive stands accused of some horrific crimes, further representing a threat in the communities of Texas that we will not tolerate,” ICE ERO-Dallas acting Field Office Director Josh Johnson said.

Marin La Torre illegally entered the U.S. at or near the San Luis Port of Entry in Arizona in September 2022 claiming to be part of a family unit. He was “charged as an inadmissible alien pursuant to the Immigration Nationality Act” but released into the country instead of being processed for removal under the Biden administration.

He remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.