Irish man believed to be a member of transnational crime group deported from Boston

Patrick Connors, 31, was removed from Boston on July 13, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement on Monday, July 17.

Connors, an unlawfully present Irish citizen identified as a member of a transnational criminal organization, was removed last week by Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston.

Connors was admitted into the US in August 2021 and violated the terms of his admissions when he failed to depart the US by November 2021, ICE said.

The Irish man, who was arrested by ERO Boston in Billerica, near Boston, is wanted for passport fraud, theft, and multiple motor vehicle offenses in Ireland.

ICE further said that law enforcement officials in Ireland and the US identified Connors as a member of a transnational criminal organization called the Traveling Conmen Fraud Group.

“Fugitives from justice cannot avoid accountability for criminal behavior in their native country by hiding in our communities,” ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd Lyons said.

“ERO Boston takes our duty to enforce immigration law seriously. We will apprehend those wanted by foreign authorities for serious crimes, including fraud, who are unlawfully present in the US, and we will remove them to face justice for their crimes in their home country.”

According to ICE, noncitizens 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) within the Department of Justice. EOIR is a separate entity from the US Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case, determining if a noncitizen is removable or eligible for certain forms of relief from removal.

Once a noncitizen is subject to a final order of removal issued by an immigration judge or other lawful means, ERO officers carry out the removal decisions made by the federal immigration judges.

ICE says that in fiscal year 2022, ERO arrested 46,396 noncitizens with criminal histories. This group had 198,498 associated charges and convictions, including 21,531 assault offenses, 8,164 sex and sexual assault offenses, 5,554 weapons offenses, 1,501 homicide-related offenses, and 1,114 kidnapping offenses.

According to ICE's FY2022 report, 17 citizens of Ireland were removed from the US last year. This was an increase from FY2021's figure of 10 Irish citizens and a decrease from FY2020's figure of 19 Irish citizens.