HOUSTON – The Houston field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it removes more than a thousand illegal non-citizens a month.

“So in the month of October, we had somewhere around 1,300 moves,” said Bret A. Bradford, ICE Houston Field Officer.

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He says the big problem – how many of these individuals are criminals. Of the 1,300 removed, he says 25 are child sexual predators. Convicted of crimes such as aggravated sexual assault on a child and incest.

“There is one who committed a child sex offence, was removed, re-entered the country and committed another child sex offence. So it has more. And to me, these crimes against children are heinous. It is a population that can “not defend itself.”

“Not only were sexual predators in that number, we had people convicted of murder, drug trafficking, aggravated assault, DUI, a number of felonies,” he said.

He says their office intercepts individuals directly from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and they also have five fugitive teams actively going out to apprehend non-citizens.

“We try to prioritize serious criminals, those who pose a threat, gang members, threats, no national security, terrorists,” he said.

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ICE data shows that nationally, the percentage of criminals who make up movers is similar to here in Houston.

According to their data, in 2023, 49% of all people removed from the US by ICE were felons or charged with crimes; and these are crimes other than entering the US illegally.

The number of moves was also on the rise in the Houston area. The data shows a 32 percent increase in removals from fiscal year 2021 to fiscal year 2022 and a 97 percent increase from fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2023.

Fiscal 2024 data isn’t back in full, but the first two months’ numbers saw the Houston office post another 32 percent year-over-year increase.

“If you’re in this country illegally and you continue to commit crimes or victimize our communities, we’re here, we’re going to track you down and remove you from this country,” Bradford said.