ICE busts Salvadoran gangbanger from violent 18th Street gang after wild car chase
WASHINGTON — Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a Salvadoran gangbanger who is wanted for crimes in his home country after a wild car chase in Virginia earlier this month — which ended when the illegal migrant smashed into another vehicle and wrecked his car, The Post can reveal.
Javier Enrique Canas-Escobar, 31, was apprehended in Bealeton, Va., more than 50 miles from the nation's capital following the multi-car crash on May 22 — and is a member of the 'notorious transnational' 18th Street gang already charged with illegal firearms possession in El Salvador, an ICE official said.
'Caquillo,' as he's known in the gang, veered to the opposite side of the double-yellow and collided into another driver, totaling his car, before ICE and Virginia State Police nabbed him.
4 Javier Enrique Canas-Escobar, 31, was apprehended in Bealeton, Va., more than 50 miles from the nation's capital following a multi-car chase and eventual collision on May 22.
DHS
State authorities have since charged him with two felony counts of assaulting law enforcement officers, eluding, felony and misdemeanor hit and runs, driving on the wrong side of the highway, property destruction and failure to obey a stop sign.
ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) DC field office director Russell Hott said he posed 'a significant threat to the residents of our Virginia communities' and 'has a slew of charges to answer to before being removed to El Salvador to face firearms charges there.'
Canas-Escobar illegally entered the US 'on an unknown date, at an unknown location and without being inspected, admitted or paroled,' according to the Department of Homeland Security.
4 Canas-Escobar illegally entered the US 'on an unknown date, at an unknown location and without being inspected, admitted or paroled,' according to the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS
4 Canas-Escobar is known as 'Caquillo' in the 18th Street gang.
DHS
ICE has since lodged an immigration detainer request with the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office in Warrenton. No one was injured in the car chase, but he was briefly treated at a local hospital.
Salvadoran authorities had first demanded his extradition on May 16.
President Trump's border czar Tom Homan told reporters last month that roughly 139,000 illegal immigrants were deported in the administration's first 100 days — but as many as 700,000 with criminal charges are still inside the US.
4 Todd Lyons is the acting head of ICE.
REUTERS
But high-profile deportations in March to a mega-prison in El Salvador of hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members — including purported MS-13er Kilmar Abrego Garcia — have prompted protracted legal challenges to Trump's mass deportations plan.
The White House in the past week has tasked ICE with stepping up its quota of deportations — from 1,800 to 3,000 arrests per day — as the Trump admin seeks to rapidly deport more.
ICE recently underwent a 'leadership realignment' that resulted in at least one official's retirement and the elevation of other career staffers to support that effort.
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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
California official criticized for appearing to call on gangs to intervene in immigration raids
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