EL PASO, Texas — US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) El Paso Field Office removed an unlawfully present noncitizen foreign fugitive wanted in Mexico for aggravated embezzlement, Wednesday.
On February 16, Mexican national Karen Fabiola Cardenas Lerma, 32, was removed from the United States to Mexico at the international boundary on top of the Stanton Street Bridge, where she was turned over to Mexican authorities.
“ICE collaborates closely with our law enforcement partners – domestically and internationally – to ensure that individuals who attempt to elude justice by fleeing to the United States are identified, located and returned to their home countries,” said Kenneth Genalo, acting field office director for ERO El Paso. “ICE officers remain vigilant and committed to our mission to protect national security and promote public safety.”
On April 3, 2019, Cardenas last entered the United States through the Santa Teresa (New Mexico) Port of Entry using a non-immigrant visa. On January 10, 2022 ICE officers arrested Cardenas, who failed to comply with the conditions of the non-immigrant status under which she entered the United States.
According to an active Mexican arrest warrant, in 2015 and 2016, she cooperated with her husband, Christian Arturo Rocha Trejo, who was the assistant director of human resources for the Chihuahua health services, and others to issue checks from the government of the State of Chihuahua for more than 2 million pesos, or about $100,000 – funds which they diverted for their benefit.
An immigration judge with the Executive Office for Immigration Review granted a voluntary departure to Cardenas on February 2. She remained in ICE custody until her removal February 16, 2022.
