ICE Arrests Salvadoran Gang Fugitive in Florida as Immigration Enforcement Ramps Up

Federal immigration authorities recently apprehended a wanted criminal fugitive from El Salvador who had been residing and working in Southwest Florida. The arrest comes amid continued efforts by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to locate and remove individuals with outstanding warrants or known gang affiliations from the country.

Cristian Alberto Rivas-Escalante, 29, was arrested in mid-June at a job site on Marco Island, Florida. According to law enforcement officials, he was the sole target of the operation, and contrary to community speculation, the action was not part of a broader immigration raid.

“ICE agents came to the Island specifically to locate and detain an individual with an active international fugitive warrant,” said Marco Island Police Department Captain David Ennis in a public statement. “This was not a random enforcement action. The agents were targeting someone with a documented history of criminal activity.”

Rivas-Escalante, who illegally entered the United States in 2015, was reportedly living somewhere in Southwest Florida prior to his arrest. According to ICE spokesperson Mike Meares, who was present on Marco Island during the arrest, Rivas-Escalante is associated with the 18th Street Gang—a violent and well-known transnational criminal organization.

The 18th Street Gang, a notorious rival of the MS-13 gang, is believed to be responsible for significant gang-related violence across Central America and in parts of the U.S. While MS-13 has been officially designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of State, the 18th Street Gang is considered one of the largest and most dangerous gangs operating in El Salvador and beyond.

Rivas-Escalante is currently wanted in El Salvador for “illicit association” with the gang, which authorities describe as a serious offense under the country’s criminal statutes.

According to ICE records, Rivas-Escalante was originally apprehended near Hidalgo, Texas, in late 2015 by U.S. Border Patrol agents after entering the country without authorization. Though detained initially, he was later released on bond by an immigration judge and allowed to remain in the U.S. pending his immigration proceedings—a common practice that gives non-citizens an opportunity to contest removal.

On June 11, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Fugitive Operations Team located and detained Rivas-Escalante on Marco Island. The arrest was conducted with support from multiple agencies, including ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Fort Myers, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Marco Island Police Department.

“He’s in this country illegally and has an active international warrant,” said Meares. “We had intelligence on his location and planned accordingly to ensure a safe and effective operation.”

Rivas-Escalante will remain in ICE custody as his immigration case proceeds. Authorities confirmed he will face immigration court hearings in the U.S. before being handed over to law enforcement officials in El Salvador.

“We will take him through the legal process here, and then he will ultimately be removed and transferred to Salvadoran authorities,” Meares added.

The arrest comes amid an aggressive expansion of immigration enforcement under the direction of former President Donald Trump, whose administration significantly increased the scope of ICE’s operations. Since early in Trump’s term, detention numbers have steadily climbed, with ICE reporting over 51,000 individuals in custody as of June 1—a 30% increase from earlier in the year.

While the agency was originally funded to detain around 41,500 individuals, emergency funding and legislative support have allowed ICE to exceed those limits. A massive appropriations bill passed earlier this year allocated tens of billions in new funding for border and immigration enforcement programs.

Meanwhile, tensions continue to rise around ICE’s enforcement activities and public responses to them. A controversy emerged this week involving Arizona State Senator Analise Ortiz, who admitted via social media that she had warned local residents about ICE operations taking place in her district.

Her public statements have sparked backlash, with officials from the Department of Homeland Security suggesting that her actions could warrant legal consequences.

Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at DHS, told Fox News that Ortiz’s behavior could amount to obstruction of justice. “By alerting individuals to active law enforcement operations, she placed illegal criminals ahead of the safety of American citizens,” McLaughlin said. “This certainly looks like obstruction.”

The department has not confirmed whether a formal investigation into Ortiz’s actions has been opened, but the debate highlights the ongoing clash between immigration enforcement and local political advocacy.

As for Rivas-Escalante, his arrest underscores ICE’s ongoing focus on removing individuals with criminal backgrounds and known gang ties. While public reactions to such operations remain divided, federal authorities maintain that targeted enforcement is necessary to uphold the rule of law and ensure community safety.