HOUSTON – Fox News exclusively embedded this week with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations in Houston and got an inside look at day-to-day operations. 

With a renewed focus on targeting criminal illegal migrants, the ERO Houston Field Office is seeing roughly two to three times the number of arrests, according to the director. 

Early Wednesday morning, ERO officers first carefully strategized their targets and mapped out their action plan. 

Among the target list was a twice-deported illegal migrant from El Salvador who was convicted of sexual assault of a child and managed to escape. 

Also on the ICE target list was an illegal migrant from Mexico with an alien smuggling conviction who already had been deported once. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem delivers remarks to staff at the Department of Homeland Security headquarters on Jan. 28, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Manuel Balce Ceneta-Pool/Getty Images)

“He’s re-entered the United States. The last time he was removed from U.S. was 2005, and he has evaded capture since,” an ICE officer was heard saying to the other agents before the arrest. 

Officers were following Valente Cambron-Villa’s movements for days. They follow the patterns and behaviors of each target to make sure officers make a safe arrest, according to Bradford. 

From conducting surveillance for several days, officers knew that around 6:45 a.m., Cambron-Villa would leave his home to go to work. 

“Target’s coming out of the house,” one of the ICE officers said. 

Officers swarmed his truck and made the arrest in just minutes. 

“It is extremely rewarding and to see these criminals taken out of the community so they can’t reoffend,” Bradford said. “That’s the thing you can’t measure, the crimes that you prevent by taking these folks out of the community. That’s, to me, what’s very rewarding and what I try to remind my folks of all the time.”