Federal authorities say a sweeping immigration enforcement push in Southern California has led to the capture of hundreds of previously deported migrants with criminal records or pending allegations, including a convicted child molester, a rapist and a man accused of murder.
The initiative, known as “Operation Guardian Angel,” has resulted in 362 arrests to date, officials said, using federal criminal warrants to work around California’s contentious “sanctuary state” restrictions that limit cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and immigration authorities.
During a recent enforcement action, The California Post observed federal agents leaving an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office inside the Roybal Federal Building before racing through downtown Los Angeles to the Twin Towers jail, where they took criminal migrants into federal custody from county detention.
“We’re writing federal warrants in real time, so we can force jails to hand criminal aliens over to our custody before they’re released,” Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, told The Post.
“It’s keeping bad guys from ever getting back out into the streets.”
Under “Operation Guardian Angel,” federal authorities track foreign nationals arrested by local police on criminal allegations, then move quickly to file new federal charges that allow ICE officers to assume custody before those individuals can be released back into the community.
When local jails are served with federal warrants, they are legally obligated to transfer custody of criminal illegal migrants to federal authorities.
The operation is active across the Southern California counties covered by Essayli’s jurisdiction: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura.
During an operation last week, a group of seven migrants that emerged from the belly of Twin Towers had been recently arrested and charged with crimes including domestic battery, reckless driving causing injury and illegal firearms possession
All of them had been previously convicted of entering the US illegally and subsequently deported, making them eligible for federal felony charges of illegal reentry.
Some faced the possibility of other getting hit with other federal crimes, and many had lengthy rap sheets.
Several of the men arrested told their stories to The Post at the processing center beneath the Roybal building.
Lauro Alberto Rivas — whose criminal record included arrests and convictions for weapons offenses, grand theft and drunk driving — said he’d already served eight months in jail for carrying a gun in a public space.
Rivas was glad to be headed back to Mexico, he said.
“I regret what I did. I understand I make mistakes,” he said. “I want to be sent home now. I want to see my family.”
Daniel Garcia had been arrested by cops in Gardena 15 days earlier on a domestic battery charge. He’d been previously deported for illegal entry to the US years ago and had an otherwise clean rap sheet.
To gain entry to the US this time, Garcia said he paid $10,000 to a human smuggler who led him across the Mexican border on foot. He said he owed money to the drug cartels in his hometown of Morelos, and he was terrified to go back.
“The cartels take everything,” he said. “All my life is here now.”
Raul Aranda Gutierrez said had been arrested a couple of days prior for a car wreck that injured two women badly. He was originally charged with felony DUI but had been prosecuted for reckless driving.
“It was an accident,” he claimed.
Gutierrez, whose criminal history includes convictions for drunk driving and violating a domestic protection order, said he’d snuck into the US across the Mexican border and would do so again if he was deported.
Other defendants taken into federal custody under “Operation Guardian Angel,” which is part of a Homeland Security Task Force initiative, include:
- Jaime Rodríguez Ladesma, 70, of Long Beach, an illegal migrant from Mexico who was convicted in 2023 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14. Ladesma was deported in December 2023, before illegally returning again, where he was convicted of illegally re-entering the U.S.
- Héctor Bueno-Moreno, 55, of San Luis Obispo, an illegal migrant from Mexico who was deported in September 2001 and January 2020. His criminal history includes a 1995 rape conviction in Kern County.
“The purpose of Operation Guardian Angel is to neutralize these sanctuary state policies,” Essayli said.
Thomas Giles, director of the LA field office for ICE enforcement and removal operations, added that California’s politicians are “forcing local law enforcement agencies to release criminal illegal aliens back into our communities.”
Giles said Operation Guardian Angel allows the federal government to keep “rapists, gang members, and murderers, who shouldn’t be in the U.S. at all,” away from the law-abiding citizens of California.
“We will not be deterred,” said Giles, who added that “Operation Guardian Angel” allows the federal government to keep “rapists, gang members, and murderers, who shouldn’t be in the US at all,” away from the law-abiding citizens.
“We are not going away.”
