WESTOVER, MD - Authorities within the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have announced the arrest and deportation of a French national convicted of sexually abusing a Maryland minor.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Baltimore made the arrest in November at the Eastern Correctional Institution in Westover and served the man with a Warrant of Removal from the country.
Authorities say the man entered the United States from France in July 2014 on a tourism visa that expired in October of that year. The man stayed in the US however, violating the visa program, but then left the US in August of 2015.
In January of 2018, Montgomery County Police issued an arrest warrant for the French national on charges of sexual abuse of a minor while he had been in the country.
In September of 2018, the man was brought back to the US as a Public Interest Parolee and was immediately arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Montgomery County Police. He was then convicted of the sexual abuse of a minor and sentenced to 25 years. The French national was serving that sentence at the Eastern Correctional Institution here on the Eastern Shore. according to authorities.
In September of 2023, a Department of Justice Immigration judge in Baltimore ordered the man once again removed to France. ERO officers arrested and served the removal warrant on November 20th.
“This French national was a threat to the people of Maryland,” said acting Field Office Director Darius Reeves of ERO Baltimore. “He not only violated our immigration laws, he also victimized a Maryland minor. ERO Baltimore will continue to aggressively pursue, apprehend, and remove undocumented noncitizens who cause harm to the residents of our communities.”