Another five illegal immigrants were arrested by U.S. Border Patrol in Sault Ste. Marie on Sunday and processed for removal, including at least one who was previously deported.

“Sault Ste. Marie agents, along with local law enforcement, arrested 5 illegal aliens from Mexico and El Salvador Sunday during a traffic stop,” Chief Patrol Agent John Morris posted to X on Monday. “One subject faces felony reentry charges. All are being processed for removal from the United States.”

Sault Ste. Marie agents, along with local law enforcement, arrested 5 illegal aliens from Mexico and El Salvador Sunday during a traffic stop. One subject faces felony reentry charges. All are being processed for removal from the United States. pic.twitter.com/7QWWK2vPar

— Chief Patrol Agent John R.Morris (@USBPChiefDTM) March 17, 2025

Federal agents are seeking numerous charges including a felony charge of re-entry of removed alien, re-entry after deportation, alien inadmissibility, immigration without immigrant visa, and alien previously removed once as an arriving alien, according to Morris.

The arrests are among the latest in Michigan amid the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, initiated by executive order on President Donald Trump’s first day of his second term.

The Sunday arrests in Sault Ste. Marie follow near daily notifications of Border Patrol arrests in Michigan in the weeks since, many involving criminals with a history of prior deportations.

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In just the last week, Border Patrol has announced the arrests of eight illegal immigrants – five previously deported – and a “special interest alien from Venezuela” in Shelby Township, a previously deported illegal immigrant from Mexico in Gibraltar, a Guatemalan with a lengthy criminal record in Detroit, a suspected Tren De Aragua gang member from Venezuela in Auburn Hills, and an illegal immigrant from Mexico with “an extensive illegal immigration history” in Marysville, among others.

Those arrests involved individuals with prior convictions for immigration violations, battery, false documents, forgery, obstruction, dangerous drugs, traffic offenses, and as well as pending charges for kidnapping-sex offense/robbery, aggravated robbery with deadly weapon/intent to kill, burglary of a dwelling, extortion, felony menacing, and violent crime with a weapon, according to Border Patrol.

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is no longer engaging in the practice of ‘catch and release’ for individuals entering the country illegally,” a CBP spokesperson told the Soo Today following the arrest of a Tren de Aragua gang member along the state’s northern border last month. “Leveraging all available legal authorities, CBP takes every reasonable measure to ensure that individuals apprehended at the border are detained and swiftly removed from the United States. In simple terms, illegal entrants are being arrested, detained, and rapidly removed.”

Nearly 50 illegal immigrants have been arrested and charged with crimes in eastern Michigan alone in 2025, including many with multiple prior offenses and deportations.

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The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced last week prosecutors have charged 46 illegal immigrants with a range of crimes so far this year, from drug trafficking to illegal firearms possession to child pornography offenses.

The cases involve individuals from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela who entered the country illegally with prior convictions, including human smuggling, drug trafficking, drunken driving, assault, and theft.

“These cases represent a fraction of the criminal aliens we and our federal partners arrest every day across the Detroit Sector that’s making this country safer than it was just a few short months ago,” Morris said in a statement. “I could not be more proud of our agents for their enforcement efforts as well as their ability to form strong bonds with our local, state and federal partnerships such as we see exemplified here with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

Examples cited by the U.S. Attorney’s Office include Mexican national Dulce Rubio-Rivera, who was arrested when the FBI and ICE executed a search warrant on a home in Detroit and allegedly found him inside, along with 6.25 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, a scale, ammunition and an AK-47 rifle.

It was a similar deal with Gustavo Placencia-Rosales, a Mexican national who was arrested on firearm and drug trafficking charges amid a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation. Placencia-Rosales was arrested with three others during a traffic stop in which police reportedly recovered four brick-shaped packages that field tested positive for cocaine, along with two firearms.

Columbian national Luis Gerardo Rodriguez-Rey also faces weapons offenses after the River Rouge Police Department clocked him speeding in a vehicle with no exterior lights and conducted a traffic stop. A search during the stop produced a Smith & Wesson pistol and ammunition, according to the attorney’s office.

Luis Angel Alvarez-Alvarez, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, was also arrested during a traffic stop after agents with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Border Patrol found him driving with no license plate, authorities allege.

When agents searched Alvarez’s phone, they found child pornography, and he’s now in custody facing felony charges.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office oversees federal crimes in Michigan, while state and local police have arrested countless other illegal immigrants in recent years for a wide range of crimes, from sexual assaults to gruesome murders.

Data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement released in September showed more than 662,000 illegal immigrants on the agency’s docket who have criminal convictions or charges pending.

Those criminals, the vast majority free to roam the U.S., include 13,099 convicted murderers, 15,811 convicted of sexual assaults, 162,231 convicted of assault, 56,533 with dangerous drug convictions, 5,797 convicted of fraud, 18,234 convicted of larceny, 14,301 convicted of burglary, 13,423 with weapons convictions 10,031 convicted of robbery, 9,461 with non-assaultive sexual convictions, 2,521 kidnappers, and 217 convicted of extortion.