PALM BEACH COUNTY, FL- Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced that its Enforcement and Removal Operations division, in coordination with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, and the Florida Highway Patrol worked a joint operation leading to the arrest of an illegal alien from Honduras who is a confirmed MS-13 gang member.
Luis Merary Peralta-Sevilla was picked up during the joint operation on April 15. He entered the country illegally in 2013.
“The Florida Highway patrol arrested Peralta-Sevilla during a coordinated vehicle stop, and ICE took him into custody without incident,” said ICE Director Todd M. Lyons. “He is a member of MS-13, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and he’s currently pending removal proceedings with a Department of Justice immigration judge. He’ll stay in our custody pending the outcome of those proceedings.”
The arrest shows that when state and local law enforcement agencies work cooperatively, illegal aliens can be apprehended with little risk to the public at large.
When he entered the country in 2013, U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered him in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where he admitted being a citizen and national of Honduras, also admitting that he was illegally present in the United States. A DOJ immigration judge released him on bond and he has been in the U.S. pending removal proceedings. Thirteen years later, he was still in the country. His next scheduled court hearing was set for April 2027.
He is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail pending transfer to ICE custody for removal proceedings.
“ICE continues to conduct routine daily immigration enforcement around the country as part of the agency’s effort to arrest criminal aliens and other immigration violators with no legal basis to remain in the United States,” the release said.
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