KICKED OUT | 

US officials deport alleged Irish member of ‘transnational criminal organisation’

“Fugitives from justice cannot avoid accountability for criminal behaviour in their native country by hiding in our communities”

Tue 18 Jul 2023 at 12:25

A wanted Irish fugitive who is alleged to be a member of a transnational criminal gang has been deported from the US.

Patrick Connors (31) who was wanted for passport fraud, theft and multiple motor vehicle offenses in Ireland on July 13 was extradited by the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Boston.

Connors, who had been admitted into the United States in August 2021, violated the terms of his admission when he failed to depart by November 2021.

ERO Boston arrested him in Billerica, near Boston, after law enforcement officials in Ireland and the United States claimed Connors was a member of a gang called the Travelling Conmen Fraud Group.

“Fugitives from justice cannot avoid accountability for criminal behaviour in their native country by hiding in our communities,” ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd Lyons said.

“ERO Boston takes our duty to enforce immigration law seriously. We will apprehend those wanted by foreign authorities for serious crimes, including fraud, who are unlawfully present in the US, and we will remove them to face justice for their crimes in their home country.”

According to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), non-citizens placed into removal proceedings receive their legal due process from federal immigration judges in the immigration courts.

This is administered by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) within the Department of Justice. EOIR is a separate entity from the US Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case, determining if a non-citizen is removable or eligible for certain forms of relief from removal.

Once a non-citizen is subject to a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge or other lawful means, ERO officers carry out the removal decisions made by the federal immigration judges.

Last year 46,396 non-citizens with criminal histories were arrested by ERO. This group had 198,498 associated charges and convictions, including 21,531 assault offenses; 8,164 sex and sexual assault offenses; 5,554 weapons offenses; 1,501 homicide-related offenses; and 1,114 kidnapping offenses.

As one of ICE’s three operational directorates, ERO is the principal federal law enforcement authority in charge of domestic immigration enforcement,” ICE said in a statement.

“ERO’s mission is to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the safety of US communities and the integrity of US immigration laws.

“Its primary areas of focus are interior enforcement operations, management of the agency’s detained and non-detained populations, and repatriation of non-citizens who have received final orders of removal.”

The statement adds that 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.