ICE agents arrested 131 alleged gang members in the country illegally in a single week, including MS-13 and Tren de Aragua suspects with violent records that prior releases left on American streets.
Fox News Digital reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took 131 gang-affiliated people into custody between Oct. 4 and 10, according to Department of Homeland Security figures shared exclusively with the outlet.
Of those arrested, DHS said 22 were tied to MS-13 and 13 to Tren de Aragua. The haul fits a larger enforcement push that has produced 12,018 gang-related arrests since President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin framed the week’s work as basic public safety, not abstract policy.
"In less than a week, the brave patriots of ICE have arrested more than 100 gang members across the country, including members of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua,"
Mullin said. He added that ICE officers are “the best that America has to offer” and stand “on the frontlines every day to ensure that the worst of humanity cannot threaten or harm innocent Americans.”
He also credited Trump’s leadership for helping agents smash “gangs and cartels, making it impossible for them to do business in America, and removing their members from our country.” Arresting and deporting illegal aliens, especially gang members, he said, “is how we make America safe again.”
The individual cases DHS highlighted show how earlier catches and releases left violent suspects free to reappear.
In Las Vegas on Wednesday, agents arrested Gustavo Adolfo Flores-Ramirez, a Salvadoran national DHS identified as an MS-13 member. El Salvador wants him on aggravated homicide, aggravated femicide, rape of a minor or incapacitated person, illegal firearms offenses, illicit grouping, and crimes against public peace.
U.S. authorities had already arrested him in September 2021 and deported him to Mexico. He later reentered illegally, a felony, and was still here when ICE found him again.
In Tallahassee, Florida, the same Wednesday, agents arrested Jose Luis Perez-Arrias, a Venezuelan national DHS called a Tren de Aragua member and suspected hitman. He illegally entered in October 2023, was arrested by Border Patrol, and was released into the country under the prior administration.
That pattern tracks the broader enforcement picture voters have watched since Trump’s return, including Homeland Security reports of more than 3 million illegal immigrants leaving under the current crackdown.
Emerson Jossiel Calderon-Hernandez, a Salvadoran national and suspected MS-13 member, was arrested in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. DHS said he illegally entered in August 2012 and was released into the country.
His U.S. arrest record, as listed by DHS, includes second-degree assault, attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, armed robbery, first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and false imprisonment. He remained free enough to be scooped up again more than a decade after that first illegal entry.
Legal fights over how the system handles illegal immigrants who reoffend keep reaching the highest levels, as when Justices Sotomayor and Gorsuch weighed a second prosecution in a separate case.
Also on Tuesday in Denver, agents arrested an unnamed 14-year-old from Venezuela whom DHS linked to the Los Piratas Gang, described as a Tren de Aragua faction. He faced charges of first-degree murder, criminal attempt with extreme indifference, and was carrying a Glock 48 pistol illegally at the time of arrest.
Additional charges listed by DHS include first-degree assault with extreme indifference, first-degree kidnapping, aggravated criminal extortion, illegal discharge of a weapon, and conspiracy.
The arrests spanned the country. Named cases hit Las Vegas, Tallahassee, Washington, D.C., and Denver. The larger total of 131 covered a full week of ICE work against people already here illegally and flagged as gang-affiliated.
DHS presented the numbers as proof of sustained pressure after years in which Border Patrol catches often ended in release. Perez-Arrias’s 2023 entry-and-release path and Calderon-Hernandez’s long U.S. criminal trail both sit inside that record.
Security agencies across the federal map have faced rising pressure and leadership scrutiny in the same period, including when a Secret Service deputy chief stepped aside after agency failures and mounting threats.
Mullin’s message stayed blunt: take the gang members out, and the country gets safer. The week’s roster, homicide warrants from El Salvador, a suspected TdA hitman once released by Border Patrol, a long-time MS-13 suspect with a string of violent U.S. charges, and a 14-year-old tied to a TdA faction and armed with a Glock, gave that claim a concrete face.
Federal investigators have also been chasing other domestic threats in recent months, from FBI probes of white powder letters mailed to Capitol Hill and election offices to the gang cases ICE is clearing block by block.
The 12,018 gang-related arrests since early 2025 put the latest 131 in context. One week does not finish the job. It does show what happens when the stated priority is removal of illegal aliens tied to MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and similar crews instead of catch-and-release.
American streets do not get safer by hoping foreign homicide warrants and domestic attempted-murder raps sort themselves out. They get safer when ICE finds the suspects and takes them off the board.