Three detained in Tuesday morning stop on Coastal Highway
Federal immigration officers arrested three people during a targeted vehicle stop Tuesday morning in midtown Ocean City, with ICE saying all three were in the United States illegally.
The arrests unfolded around 8:45 a.m. near southbound Coastal Highway and 41st Street, where this reporter witnessed several unmarked vehicles with flashing blue lights surrounding another vehicle in the left-turn lane.
Traffic was forced around the vehicles as agents detained a woman wearing a white shirt and placed her inside one of them. Several agents wore tactical gear, including hats or helmets, and at least some wore vests marked “ERO,” an abbreviation for Enforcement and Removal Operations.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement later identified the woman as Telma Yolanda Lopez Cristobal, a Guatemalan national who was the target of the operation. ICE said she entered the United States illegally at an unknown date and time.
“During the vehicle stop, ICE officers discovered two other illegal aliens in the car,” the agency said in a written statement Tuesday to OC Today-Dispatch.
ICE identified the other two people arrested as Pabla Parada Valdez, a Mexican national, and Marvin Edilzar De Leon Matias, a Guatemalan national.
The agency did not say why Lopez Cristobal had been targeted or whether any of the three had criminal convictions or outstanding removal orders.
ICE said all three remained in its custody pending the outcome of removal proceedings.
That’s what I’m talking about !!!
Excellent – we need more ICE presence…