In a determined effort to expel violent offenders from the United States, federal immigration officers have apprehended two individuals, previously convicted of crimes against children, in separate actions in New Jersey and Texas.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Gladys Leticia Bustamente-Rios from Honduras and Maria Alejandra Gamarro-Quinonez from Guatemala. According to the DHS, both women are currently in custody.

Bustamente-Rios had been deported earlier and was prohibited from reentering the country, while Gamarro-Quinonez faced a definitive removal order.

“These criminal illegal aliens targeted innocent children, the most defenseless among us,” stated ICE Director Todd M. Lyons. “ICE is committed to preventing these individuals from causing harm again. Our mission centers on public safety and the removal of dangerous threats from our nation, and we remain dedicated to ensuring the safety of our communities from these heinous criminals.”

ICE agents successfully captured Gladys Leticia Bustamente-Rios, the Honduran offender who had been previously deported and forbidden from reentering the United States. (Department of Homeland Security)

The DHS said Bustamente-Rios entered the U.S. illegally in 1997. That same year, she was charged with assault and a family offense, for which she was sentenced to five years in prison.

An immigration judge ordered her removed on Aug. 17, 1998, prohibiting her from ever reentering the U.S. She was deported on July 30, 1999.

She later committed a felony offense by reentering the country illegally.

Maria Alejandra Gamarro-Quinonez, of Guatemala, was arrested by ICE after violating her visa and facing child endangerment charges. (Department of Homeland Security)

Last month, ICE officers located and arrested Bustamente-Rios at her residence, and she remains in ICE custody pending her removal.

Federal officials detailed a separate case involving Gamarro-Quinonez, whose path into the U.S. unfolded differently.

Gamarro-Quinonez originally entered the U.S. legally on a visitor visa, though she failed to leave by April 27, 2007, as required by her visa conditions.

ICE arrested two women convicted of child-related crimes during coordinated operations in New Jersey and Texas. (Fox News)

ICE encountered Gamarro-Quinonez on Aug. 14, 2023 after she was arrested and booked into the New Jersey Sussex County Jail for theft.

She was released after posting $2,000 and was given a notice to appear before a Department of Justice immigration judge.

An immigration judge in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, ordered her removed on April 1, 2025. ICE arrested her on Nov. 10 in Graham, Texas, where she had reported for probation after a judge deferred adjudication in her child endangerment and abandonment case, the DHS said.

Like Bustamente-Rios, the DHS said Gamarro-Quinonez will remain in ICE custody pending her removal.