Anti-ICE agitators helped criminal illegal immigrants evade deportation, DHS says

FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) details cases in which anti-ICE agitators actively helped criminal illegal immigrants evade federal arrest, including suspects accused of child rape, domestic violence, and gang-related violence.

These cases demonstrate a growing trend of organized interference with federal immigration enforcement during recent ICE operations.

“These are the monsters that the sanctuary agitators and politicians are protecting,” DHS Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. “We remind the public that obstructing law enforcement is a felony and a federal crime.”

FROM FELONY PROTEST: MINNESOTA ANTI-ICE AGITATORS’ LINES CAN CROSS

Protesters, using whistles to alert neighborhoods of ICE activity, confront Minneapolis police officers, in Minneapolis, January 24, 2026. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

According to DHS, members of the anti-ICE Colorado Rapid Response Network alerted Jose Reyes Leon-Deras, a convicted child rapist, to the presence of ICE on June 20, 2025. A Facebook post from the anti-ICE group accused by DHS of aiding Leon-Deras’ escape on June 20 indicates that members affiliated with the anti-ICE group used a bullhorn that day to alert potential targets of the ICE.

The post suggested that police left without executing any warrants, while noting that officers returned in the days that followed.

According to DHS, federal agents finally arrested Leon-Deras on June 27 and he received a final order of deportation on October 30 during the Trump administration’s ongoing operations in Colorado.

In another situation in Minneapolis, an apartment manager allegedly blocked federal immigration agents from entering a building where a criminal foreign national from Somalia, convicted of violent sex crimes and previously arrested for a high-level assault, was located.

DHS accused the apartment manager of actively protecting a sex offender, Mahad Abdulkadir Yusuf, who had a conviction for first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He allegedly forced his victim to perform sexual acts on several occasions.

According to DHS, Yusuf was also arrested in 2016 for first-degree assault and was the subject of an active arrest warrant for obstructing police.

Weekend rally: Convicted murderers and child sex offenders among illegal aliens caught on ice across us

Yusuf originally entered the United States in 1996 and was a legal permanent resident, but his crimes made him eligible for deportation and ICE arrested him on December 31.

Another child sex offender, Jozias Natanael Carmona-Pena, was allegedly aided not only by agitators but also by leaders of the sanctuary city of Minneapolis, according to DHS.

Carmona-Pena was awaiting charges for lewd and lascivious acts with a child, but he was released onto the streets of Minneapolis after local law enforcement allegedly denied ICE’s detention request that Carmona-Pena be detained until they could pick him up for immigration violations, according to the Trump administration.

Carmona-Pena received a final order of deportation in 2023 but remained in the country.

Pictured are five criminal illegal aliens with charges ranging from child rape to domestic violence, whom ICE agitators allegedly tried to help evade arrest, according to the Department of Homeland Security. (Department of Homeland Security/Getty Images)

When federal authorities attempted to arrest Carmona-Pena on Dec. 10, agitators allegedly swarmed immigration agents and obstructed their attempts to arrest the illegal alien accused of child sex crimes, including ramming one of their cars into an ICE vehicle.

Local police then intervened and provided assistance, but, according to DHS, these actions allowed Carmona-Pena to avoid arrest. He was finally arrested later that month, on December 27, and is now in detention awaiting deportation.

In another case in Milwaukee, a federal judge, Hannah Dugan, was convicted of obstruction for leading a criminal illegal alien, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, accused of domestic violence, through a back door inside her courthouse to avoid ICE agents.

According to DHS, Flores-Ruiz had other violent criminal charges on his record, ranging from strangulation, choking and battery to domestic violence, when he was finally arrested following the April escape incident with Dugan.

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Federal immigration agents in Illinois pursuing a suspected Venezuelan gang member in Illinois were also hampered by agitators, according to DHS.

DHS said that when the suspect tried to barricade himself inside an apartment — after ramming his car into police — bystanders gathered around the officers and began throwing rocks and bottles at them.

Luis Jesus Acosta Gutierrez, an illegal alien from Venezuela and suspected member of Tren de Aragua, allegedly drove his car into police as they sought to pursue him. The agitators attempted to obstruct ICE agents as they attempted to arrest Acosta Gutierrez, who had barricaded himself in an apartment. (Department of Homeland Security)

According to DHS, local police were unwilling to help. After several hours of negotiation, ICE officials arrested Acosta.

“As our law enforcement officers risk their lives to arrest heinous criminals, including child rapists, sex offenders, gang members and other violent offenders, our officers face a coordinated campaign of violence against them,” McLaughlin said Thursday.

“President Trump and Secretary Noem have been very clear. We will not let agitators stop us from removing criminal illegal aliens from America’s neighborhoods. If you obstruct or attack law enforcement, you will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”