ICE apprehends Armenian man wanted for fraud
LOS ANGELES – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers successfully apprehended an individual wanted by the Government of the Armenia.
Gevorg Gasparyan, 38, was arrested July 23, 2020, by officers with ERO Los Angeles Fugitive Operations assigned to Fugitive Alien Removal (FAR) team pursuant to a targeted enforcement operation in North Hollywood, California; Gasparyan is wanted for swindling committed in particularly large amount, forgery, sale or use of forged documents, and abuse of authority by the employee of commercial or other organizations.
On June 23, 2015, Gasparyan entered the United States at the Boston Logan International Airport in Massachusetts, as a nonimmigrant visitor with authorization to remain in the U.S for a temporary period. Gasparyan later departed the U.S. on an unknown date. Gasparyan was later readmitted to U.S. at the Calexico, California, port of entry by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Sept. 6, 2018.
ERO Los Angeles received notification from a partner law enforcement agency identifying Gasparyan as the subject of a Red Notice Feb.12. He was apprehended the same day and served with a notice to appear pursuant to Section 237(a)(1)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Gasparyan is in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings.
Aliens placed into removal proceedings receive their legal due process from federal immigration judges in the immigration courts, which are administered by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). EOIR is an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and is separate from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE. Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case. ICE officers carry out the removal decisions made by the federal immigration judges.
“As I have previously stated, any degree of fraud is a crime that threatens the overall integrity of federal law by creating a vulnerability within our nation,” said ICE ERO Los Angeles Field Office Director Dave Marin. “Fraud remains a unique and sophisticated economic crime that erodes security and impacts millions of people in the U.S. each year – Gasparyan and others like him suspected of perpetrating this egregious crime need to know the U.S. government has actively engaged agents who remain committed to enforcing and upholding laws that have wide impact on national security.”
ICE apprehends and removes hundreds of criminal aliens each year, including those wanted for a crime in another country, regardless of severity, such as murder, rape, sexual abuse of a minor, drug offenses, alien smuggling, fraud or theft. ICE special agents and officers are highly trained, sworn federal law enforcement officers empowered to make both criminal and civil arrests. The agency is the second largest federal law enforcement agency in the U.S. responsible for enforcing more than 400 federal statutes that focus on national security, counter proliferation, money laundering, human smuggling, document and benefit fraud, and immigration enforcement.
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