From US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

BALTIMORE — On April 22, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Baltimore apprehended a 52-year-old Jamaican national convicted of first-degree murder. Deportation officers arrested him in Baltimore and served him a notice to appear for immigration proceedings due to his conviction for an aggravated felony after admission.

“This particular individual has shown a propensity toward violent crimes, having been convicted of both battery and premeditated murder in the past,” said ERO Baltimore acting Field Office Director Darius Reeves. “ERO has a duty to the residents of our Maryland communities to keep them safe from such offenders.”

The Jamaican citizen originally entered the United States at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as a lawful permanent resident in October 1981.

The Laurel Police Department arrested him for battery in Laurel, Maryland, in December 1995. In April 1996, the Prince George’s County District Court in Upper Marlboro convicted him of the battery charge.

In April 1998, the Prince George’s County Police Department arrested and charged the Jamaican citizen with first degree premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit murder and use of handgun in the commission of a felony or crime of violence. The Circuit Court for Prince George’s County convicted him of those charges in April 1999 and sentenced him to lifetime incarceration.

In March 2022, the Maryland Department of Corrections deemed the Jamaican national eligible for a reentry into society program and released him into a six-month treatment program in Frederick. He entered the transitional program in October 2022. The state of Maryland oversees the program, which requires weekly reporting to the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County.

On April 18, ERO Baltimore and OPLA Baltimore determined that the Jamaican national has not made a probative claim to U.S. citizenship and recommended that he be detained and placed in removal proceedings before the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

As one of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) three operational directorates, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) is the principal federal law enforcement authority in charge of domestic immigration enforcement. ERO’s mission is to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of U.S. communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws, and its primary areas of focus are interior enforcement operations, management of the agency’s detained and non-detained populations, and repatriation of noncitizens who have received final orders of removal. ERO’s workforce consists of more than 7,700 law enforcement and non-law enforcement support personnel across 25 domestic field offices and 208 locations nationwide, 30 overseas postings, and multiple temporary duty travel assignments along the border.

For more news and information on how the ERO Baltimore field office carries out its immigration enforcement mission, follow us on Twitter at @EROBaltimore.