U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Houston field office, with support from ERO Guatemala and the Security Alliance for Fugitive Enforcement Task Force, successfully deported 42-year-old Jiuver Alexander Esquivel Florian, a Guatemalan fugitive with a long criminal history, on August 26.
Esquivel, who had been deported from the U.S. three times before, is wanted in Guatemala for failing to pay child support.
Esquivel was flown on a charter flight coordinated by ICE’s Air Operations Unit from Alexandria, Louisiana, to La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City. Upon landing, he was handed over to Guatemalan authorities.
“This foreign fugitive had repeatedly undermined the rule of law both in the United States and in his home country of Guatemala,” said ERO Houston Field Office Director Bret A. Bradford. “By collaborating with our domestic and international partners to return him to Guatemala after holding him accountable for his crimes in the U.S., we have prevented a public safety threat from being released into our communities and ensured that his victims abroad will receive justice.”
Esquivel first entered the U.S. illegally at an unknown date and location. He was convicted of battery in Georgia in 2005 and of DUI in 2007. After being arrested in 2011 for probation violation, ERO Atlanta ordered his removal, and he was deported to Guatemala in December 2011. Esquivel re-entered the U.S. illegally and was apprehended in Texas in August 2012. After a conviction for illegal entry, he was deported again in October 2012.
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Esquivel illegally entered the U.S. a third time and was arrested in Texas in June 2023 on charges of human smuggling. He was convicted and sentenced to 15 months in prison. After his release, ERO Houston took custody of him and reinstated his prior removal order.
On June 29, ERO Houston confirmed that Esquivel was wanted in Guatemala for failure to pay child support, and his removal was affirmed by an immigration judge on July 12.
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