Five Arrested in Bay Area in National Human Rights Violation Sweeps

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By Bay City News Service

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested five foreign-born fugitives hiding in the Bay Area this week, ICE officials announced Friday.

The arrests were part of a national operation by ICE, called ‘Operations Safe Haven II,’ which targeted suspects believed to have committed human rights violations, ICE officials said.

The operation, which resulted in 50 arrests in cities throughout the country, wrapped up on Thursday, according to ICE officials.

ICE officials said they arrested the five people in the North Bay, the East Bay and the Peninsula.

The Bay Area arrestees include a Central American man who was arrested on suspicion of serving in a unit of a military organization with documented human rights violations and participating in the forced disappearance of civilians, ICE officials said.

Federal officials acknowledged that ICE agents also arrested a Peruvian man in the Bay Area on suspicion of assisting in interrogations involving electric shock torture and beating prisoners while he worked for
the Peruvian Civil Guard during the 80s.

The two men, along with the other arrestees, remain in ICE custody and are waiting to be deported to their native countries, according to ICE officials.

In addition to the arrests in the Bay Area, ICE offices in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New Jersey, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix and St. Paul also recorded arrests.

ICE officials are withholding the names of the arrestees and the details surrounding their arrests, citing legal constraints.

Human rights violators include those who are known or suspected to have participated in persecution, war crimes, genocide, torture, extra judicial killings and the use of recruitment of child soldiers, ICE officials said.

“Our focus is to identify the people, many times working with foreign governments ... so they can face charges in the countries where they committed those crimes,” Acting Special Agent Tatum King said. “They’re trying to blend in with the community, when in fact they’re war criminals.”

ICE’s National Fugitive Operations Program spearheaded the operation in coordination with the ICE Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center and ICE National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center, according to ICE officials.

ICE’s HRVWCC is dedicated to investigating human rights violators who try to evade justice by entering the US, often with fraudulent identities, ICE officials said.

The number of arrests in this recent operation is over twice the amount the first “No Safe Haven” operation yielded, which took place in Sept. 2014, according to ICE.

ICE officials said often times they receive tips from the public, including recent immigrants who have recognized the suspects.

Anyone who has information about foreign nationals suspected of engaging in human rights abuses or war crimes is urged to contact ICE by calling their toll-free tip line at (866) 347-2423.