An illegal immigrant who was convicted last year of sexually assaulting a minor has been arrested by deportation officers in Maryland, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In a statement on June 18, the agency announced that Luis Portillo-Henriquez, a 39-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador, was apprehended in Baltimore last week by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).
Mr. Portillo-Henriquez entered the United States on an unknown date and location and without being inspected or paroled by federal immigration officers, ICE said.
Officials noted that Mr. Portillo-Henriquez has a lengthy criminal record that began in 2010, including recently being convicted of sex crimes against a 14-year-old child from Maryland. He also has multiple charges and convictions of impaired driving and operating a vehicle while his license was suspended.
“Luis Portillo-Henriquez … represented a significant threat to the children of our Maryland neighborhoods,” ERO Baltimore field office Director Matthew Elliston said in Tuesday’s statement.
“ERO Baltimore continues to prioritize public safety by apprehending and removing the most egregious noncitizen offenders from our communities. We are only out for the worst of the worst,” Mr. Elliston added.
The agency said Mr. Portillo-Henriquez will remain in ERO custody pending the outcome of his removal proceedings. An immigration judge will ultimately determine whether he is subject to a final order of removal or eligible to remain.
Lengthy Record
According to ICE, the District Court for Baltimore County, Maryland-Traffic System first convicted Mr. Portillo-Henriquez of driving under the influence (DUI) on April 29, 2010.
That same court convicted him again on Sept. 13, 2017, for driving a vehicle without a license and gave him probation before judgment.
On Aug. 31, 2021, the Prince George’s County Police Department in Hyattsville, Maryland, charged Mr. Portillo-Henriquez with changing lanes when it was unsafe to do so, according to ICE.
He was arrested and charged again eight days later, this time by officers of the Frederick Police Department for another DUI.
On March 1, 2023, the Baltimore City Police Department arrested Mr. Portillo-Henriquez for driving with a suspended license.
About two weeks later, police in Baltimore arrested him again for sexually assaulting a Maryland child. He was charged with two counts of a third-degree sex offense, sex offense in the fourth degree, rape in the second degree, child abuse in the second degree, and sexual abuse of a minor in the same house or family.
On Aug. 9, 2023, the Baltimore City Circuit Court convicted the Salvadoran national of sexual abuse of a minor and sentenced him to 25 years of imprisonment. However, the Maryland court suspended all but 18 months of his prison sentence.
Eight months later, on April 4, Mr. Portillo-Henriquez was convicted in Frederick County of DUI and sentenced to a year in prison.
The statement did not mention why Mr. Portillo-Henriquez was out of prison at the time of his apprehension. NTD has contacted ICE for clarification but did not receive a response by press time.