SAN ANTONIO — An immigration fugitive from El Salvador wanted for aggravated homicide was deported Thursday by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Laredo, Texas.

Carlos Vidal Navarro-Montecinos, 22, was flown to El Salvador July 13 onboard a charter flight coordinated by ICE’s Air Operations (IAO) Unit. Upon arrival, Navarro-Montecinos was turned over to officials from El Salvador’s Civilian National Police (PNC).

According to the Attorney General of El Salvador’s Department of Usulutan, on March 7, 2015, two MS-13 gang members shot and killed a prominent federal prosecutor, Andres Ernesto Oliva Tejada. Before the shooting, detectives learned that Navarro-Montecinos, an MS-13 gang member, was ordered to scout the location prior to the murder. Navarro-Montecinos is being charged as accomplice to the aggravated homicide. The prosecutor died at the scene from injuries he sustained from the shooting.

“This country will not be a refuge for criminals who are suspected of committing aggravated homicides in their home countries," said Daniel Bible, field office director of ERO San Antonio. "ICE will continue to seek out and deport wanted criminals to ensure they face justice in their home countries.”

On June 9, 2015, Navarro-Montecinos entered the United States near Mission, Texas, and was arrested by agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Border Patrol. On Dec. 15, 2016, an immigration judge ordered him removed. On June 8, the Board of Immigration Appeals denied Navarro-Montecinos’s appeal. He was transferred to ICE custody and taken to the Rio Grande Detention Center June 11 to await his removal. On June 23, he was transferred to the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall, Texas.

This removal was part of ERO’s Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement (SAFE) Initiative. The SAFE Initiative is geared toward the identification of foreign fugitives who are wanted abroad and removable under U.S. immigration law. Those removed as part of the SAFE Initiative have been deemed ineligible to remain in the United States and were all wanted by the Policia Nacional Civil (PNC). To date, the ERO Office in El Salvador, through the SAFE Initiative, has removed and facilitated the PNC’s ability to arrest more than 800 criminal fugitives to El Salvador.

Such coordination efforts demonstrate the continued working relationship between ICE San Antonio’s Office of Chief Counsel (OCC), ERO’s Assistant Attaché for Removal and the Government of El Salvador Immigration (DGME), the PNC, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Public Health. SAFE aligns with ERO’s public safety priorities and eliminates the need for formal extradition requests.

Since Oct. 1, 2009, ERO has removed more than 1,700 foreign fugitives from the United States who were sought in their native countries for serious crimes, including kidnapping, rape and murder. In fiscal year 2016, ICE conducted 240,255 removals nationwide. Ninety-two percent of individuals removed from the interior of the United States had previously been convicted of a criminal offense.

ICE Air History

ICE routinely uses special air charters to transport aliens who have final orders of removal from an immigration judge. Staffed by ICE ERO Air Operations officers, these air charters enable the agency to repatriate large groups of deportees in an efficient, expeditious and humane manner.

Since 2006, ICE Air Operations has supported ERO by providing mass air transportation and removal coordination services to ERO field offices nationwide. Staffed by ERO officers, these air charters enable the agency to repatriate large groups of deportees in an efficient, expeditious and humane manner.