ICE deports illegal immigrant wanted for homicide in El Salvador

close

Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for September 15

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on FoxNews.com.

An illegal immigrant wanted in El Salvador for aggravated homicide was deported from the United States on Friday and handed over to Salvadoran authorities, immigration officials said.

Officers with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) flew Jose Francisco Quintanilla Granados, 27, from the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston to the Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport in San Salvador.

Jose Francisco Quintanilla Granados arriving in San Salvador. (ICE)

Quintanilla Granados first came under ICE’s radar this summer after he was arrested on local charges and detained at the Harris County Jail. ICE officers conducted a background check on Granados and discovered he was wanted in El Salvador for aggravated homicide.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office transferred Quintanilla Granados into ICE custody on July 3. Late last month, an immigration judge with the Executive Office for Immigration Review ordered Quintanilla Granados removed from the United States to El Salvador.

Quintanilla Granados was handed over to officials from El Salvador’s Civilian National Police (PNC) upon his arrival at the Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport.

BALTIMORE MURDER SUSPECTS PROTECTED BY SANCTUARY LAWS, ICE SAYS; ‘THIS IS THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO’

Acting ICE Director Tony Pham said the case demonstrated the agency’s operations, “focus overwhelmingly on criminal offenders, and any localities that misguidedly limit ICE cooperation do a disservice to their communities by needlessly releasing public safety threats where they are free to re-offend.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

In the fiscal year 2019, ERO Houston removed more than 12,620 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions and nearly 1,700 with pending criminal charges.