BOSTON — Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston arrested an unlawfully present Nigerian citizen convicted of indecent solicitation of a Rhode Island child. Deportation officers with ERO Boston apprehended the 45-year-old Nigerian sex offender Feb.15 in Rumford, Rhode Island.

The apprehension was one of the arrests ERO Boston made as part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) recent national enforcement effort focused on apprehending unlawfully present sex offenders. ERO officers apprehended 275 unlawfully present foreign sex offenders nationwide during the law enforcement effort that took place between Feb. 5 and Feb. 16.

The Nigerian citizen entered the United States in New York, New York, under the conditions of a nonimmigrant tourist visa in May 2017. He violated the terms of his visa by remaining in the United States beyond the time authorized.

Rhode Island State Police arrested the Nigerian noncitizen in July 2019 on the charge of indecent solicitation of a child. In May 2022, Rhode Island’s Providence Superior Court convicted the Nigerian national of the offense and sentenced him to five years in prison with six months of home confinement. The court then suspended four and a half years of the sentence.

Under Rhode Island state law, indecent solicitation of a child penalizes the conduct of soliciting a person under age 18, or someone the defendant believes is under age 18, to engage in various conduct related to child sexual abuse material; possession, creation or dissemination of obscene material; prostitution or any form of sexual conduct. Rhode Island law categorizes the offense as as both a felony and a sex offense.

After becoming aware of the noncitizen convicted sex offender’s presence in ERO Boston’s area of responsibility, ERO Boston officers located and arrested him without incident. He will be held in ICE custody pending a hearing before an immigration judge with the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). EOIR is a separate entity from the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case, determining if a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal or eligible for certain forms of relief from removal.

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https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ero-boston-arrests-nigerian-citizen-convicted-indecent-solicitation-child-rhode