(The Center Square) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents based in Houston continue to arrest and remove violent criminals illegally in the U.S. In several targeted operations, agents arrested more than 600 criminal foreign nationals, including scores who were previously deported multiple times, confirmed gang members, sex offenders and fugitives.

ICE agents recently removed Orbelin Benitez-Carbajal, a criminal Mexican national previously deported and convicted of manslaughter. He was returned to Mexico last week after previously being deported in 2014 and illegally reentering the country last January. His criminal record includes manslaughter and assault in Travis County, driving while intoxicated in Austin and illegal entry in west Texas in January 2024.

An-eight time removed Mexico national, Baltazar Pantoja Calderon, was also removed from the U.S. this month. He was convicted on charges of kidnapping, driving while intoxicated, illegal entry and resisting arrest. Each time he illegally entered the U.S., he was caught and returned to Mexico, including this month.

Another Mexican national, Leticia Caballero Guadarrama, was removed to Mexico this month after having been removed six times going back to 2002. Her criminal record includes 14 convictions, including six for DWIs, six for theft or larceny, and two for refusing to provide identification to law enforcement.

In his more than 30-year career, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford said few things “surprise” him, but Guadarrama’s actions were “shocking. After repeatedly entering the country illegally and getting behind the wheel intoxicated, she has victimized hard-working Texans over and over again by stealing their money and property and then attempted to avoid accountability by refusing to provide law enforcement with identification after she was caught. By carelessly flaunting our system of laws, her actions endangered everyone in the community and have wasted significant taxpayer-funded government resources.”

ICE-Houston agents also removed Mexican national Ariel Nunez Figueroa this month who was wanted by Mexican authorities for kidnapping and organized crime. He was allegedly involved in the 2014 murder of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Teachers’ College, authorities said. He illegally entered the U.S. as a gotaway at an unknown location on an unknown date. Last September, Interpol notified ICE that he was potentially living in the Houston area. ICE agents tracked him down and took him into custody. An immigration judge ordered his removal in January.

“For nearly eleven years, this foreign fugitive evaded authorities while the family and friends of those 43 students who were brutally murdered patiently awaited justice for their loved ones,” Bradford said. “Thanks to outstanding teamwork by ICE, Interpol and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, we were able to successfully track him down and remove him to Mexico to face prosecution for his alleged crimes.”

In a targeted removal operation, ICE agents arrested nine criminal foreign nationals in the Houston area convicted of a range of sex offenses and other charges. They include a three-time deported Salvadoran charged with continuous sexual assault of a minor; a three-time deported Mexican national convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a minor; Cuban nationals convicted of aggravated sexual assault, sexual battery with a weapon, kidnapping; Vietnamese nationals convicted of abduction with intent to extort money for an immoral purpose, illegal possession of a weapon, burglary, and gross sexual imposition with a minor under age 13; a Mexican national convicted of indecency with a minor; a Philippine national convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a minor and cocaine possession.

In a separate one-week operation, working with multiple federal, state and local law enforcement partners, ICE agents arrested 646 illegal foreign nationals, including 543 who’d been charged or convicted of criminal offenses while in the country illegally, including seven documented gang members. Federal agents executed 71 criminal arrest warrants and arrested 543 criminal illegal foreign nationals.

Those arrested include:

140 charged or convicted of an aggravated felony or other violent crimes like homicide, aggravated assault, or domestic violence;

34 charged or convicted of sex offenses, including aggravated sexual assault of a minor, possession of child pornography, or rape;

38 convicted of illegal firearms offenses, including unlawful carrying of a firearm, alien in possession of a firearm and aggravated assault with a firearm;

52 charged or convicted of illicit narcotics offenses, including drug trafficking, or possession of a controlled substance;

51 charged or convicted of property crimes like burglary or theft;

93 charged or convicted of driving while intoxicated.

“In recent years, some of the world’s most dangerous fugitives, transnational gang members and criminal aliens have taken advantage of the crisis at our nation’s southern border to illegally enter the U.S.,” Bradford said. “After illegally entering the country, many of these criminal aliens have gone on to commit violent crime and reign terror on law-abiding residents.”

Their arrests, he said, have sent a “resounding message to transnational criminal organizations everywhere that the law enforcement community in the Texas Gulf Coast is more united than ever and will not rest until we’ve eradicated these criminal elements from the country.”

(The Center Square) – Legislation to require private employers to offer paid sick leave insurance and to raise the minimum wage were each endorsed by a group of Democrats on Tuesday at the North Carolina General Assembly.

Sen. Sydney Batch, the minority party leader who succeeded longtime leader and fellow Wake County Democratic Sen. Dan Blue, introduced the North Carolina Paid Family Leave Insurance Act, also known as Senate Bill 480. It would require employers to offer insurance for paid sick leave, which would be financed through contributions from both the employer and the employee, similar to the federal Social Security program.

“There are so many families that are struggling just to make ends meet,” Batch said at a news conference in the Legislative Building on Jones Street in Raleigh. “They are living paycheck to paycheck, and they don’t have the ability to go ahead and take any leave”

She cited a woman who had a baby at 26 weeks and the baby was in the hospital for more than three months. The mother did not have paid leave.

“Every single day, she had to leave her child and then come back after hours,” Batch said. “In a society that is so well resources, it is outrageous that we do not provide paid leave for individuals.”

The legislation has a companion bill in the House of Representatives.

Thirteen other states offer similar insurance, according to the bill’s sponsors.

Another group of Democratic legislators held a separate news conference calling for an increase in the state’s minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, the same as the federal minimum wage. The state’s minimum wage has not been increased in 16 years, according to bill sponsors.

Several bills have been filed to raise North Carolina minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.

Thirty states currently have higher minimum wages than North Carolina, supporters of the bills said.

Under the Fair Minimum Wage Act – also known as House Bill 353 – sponsored by Rep. Marcia Morey, D-Durham, the state minimum wage would go up to $18 an hour by 2030. The average minimum wage worker would have to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week to make ends meet, she said.

“The average North Carolinian can’t survive off the minimum wage,” she said. “We have to protect our workers.”

However, critics of a higher minimum wage, such as the National Federation of Independent Businesses, say it is a job killer and particularly hurts small businesses.

“The NFIB Research Center estimates that raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour would result in more than 1.3 million jobs lost, 900,000 of the job losses (55%) would come from small businesses,” the organization said of nationwide jobs in January.

Mandatory paid family leave is also very unpopular with small business owners, according NFIB, with 94% of members saying in a recent poll that they opposed requiring 12 weeks a year in paid leave.

Both bills, while likely to be supported by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, face an uphill climb. Republicans have majorities of 30-20 in the Senate and 71-49 in the House of Representatives.

(The Center Square) —  Nevada Democrats are criticizing Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo after he supported President Donald Trump’s effort to close the U.S. Department of Education.

Last week, Trump signed an executive order to eliminate the department.

“Closing the Department of Education would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them,” the order says.

Once this order was announced, Lombardo wrote an op-ed calling it “one of the most influential reforms yet of [Trump’s] presidency.”

“Funding for the Department of Education has more than doubled since 1980 – yet billions more in funding hasn’t contributed to better education results. In fact, it’s done the opposite,” he said in his op-ed.

The governor stated that returning curriculum decisions to the state level will allow for moving “past outdated national standardized testing.” Instead, he said, this allows “focus on fresh accountability for academic achievement and new choices for students and parents.”

“Education should be about opportunity, and this move will empower states to deliver unprecedented opportunity for every child, regardless of household income or where a child lives,” he wrote.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford on Monday criticized the governor’s support of Trump’s executive order.

Ford’s comments on social media follow his press conference where the Democrat critiqued the governor last week.

On X, Ford said he previously taught public school math. He added, “Gutting the Department of Education isn’t about efficiency — it’s about abandoning our students.”

Ford also said that when Lombardo talks about “local control,” he is really talking about being “loyal to Trump, no matter the cost.”

“Lombardo wants to kiss up to Donald Trump? Fine. But he doesn’t get to do it at the expense of Nevada students,” he said on X.

The same day, Ford posted another post on X stating that Lombardo had sold out “Nevada’s kids.”

Ford recently joined a coalition of other Democratic attorneys general in suing the Trump administration to stop the Department of Education’s shutdown.

The Nevada Democratic Party released a statement on Monday saying Nevada residents know the governor will not stand up for the state’s students. The party accused Lombardo of prioritizing Republican efforts to give “tax handouts to billionaires like Elon Musk.”

Nevada Democrats said many school programs will be cut if the U.S. Department of Education closes.

Meanwhile, The Center Square previously reported that Nevada students scored below the national average regarding reading comprehension and mathematics.