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The father of a Marine who was arrested by immigration officials while visiting his pregnant daughter at Camp Pendleton has a criminal record that includes charges of domestic violence and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, the department says. Homeland Security Said on Thursday.
Esteban Rios was deported Mexico In 1999, removed from United States of America He was ordered deported by an immigration judge in 2020 after entering the country illegally again in 2005 and for a third time, the department said.
The statement was the first detailed explanation provided by Homeland Security since Marine Steve Rios said last week that his father was detained after going there. Southern California At the military base, he was released with an ankle monitor and taken into custody again upon reporting to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office a few days later as ordered.
Asked multiple times by The Associated Press on Tuesday for information about any criminal record of Esteban Rios, Homeland Security initially did not provide details, saying only that “criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States.” The department said it had no other information to release.
On Thursday — a day after the AP published a story on Esteban Rios, and two days after asking the department for details — DHS released a detailed description of his criminal record. The department also accused the AP of “deliberately obscuring the facts”, despite the agency not providing the information to the AP, accusing the news organization of obscuring the facts.
Steve Rios of Oceanside, California reported San Diego He told station KNSD that his parents encouraged him to join the Marines. He said he came to the United States from Mexico more than 30 years ago and has washed cars and cleaned houses all his life.
Steve Rios told the station, “It was just making him proud, right? I’ve seen all his struggles.” “The least I could do was, okay, and serve this country and try to, you know, put some time into it.”
Steve Rios said he and his parents were taking his younger sister and her husband, also a Marine, to Pendleton on Sept. 28, as they had done every weekend for the past few months while she was expecting her first child. After being stopped at the gate, ICE officers arrived to detain both parents, later releasing them with ankle monitors. He said his father was deported on October 10.
The Rios family told the station that the parents had no criminal record, pending a green card application and work permit sponsored by Steve.
In response to the AP’s inquiry, Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, issued a statement Tuesday, reading, “Under President (Donald) Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem, if you break the law – including domestic violence and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon – you will face consequences. Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in America.”
The statement did not say anything about Esteban Rios, including whether he had been arrested or charged with a crime or whether he had any immigration history.
When the AP asked whether Esteban Rios and his wife had a criminal history, ICE communications strategist Luis Alani wrote, “By law, ICE has no information about these aliens. To clarify, there is no information we can release.”