Federal immigration officers arrested two illegal immigrants convicted of crimes against children in back-to-back operations in New Jersey and Texas – in a move authorities say reflects a renewed drive to push violent offenders out of the U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a press release that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested both Gladys Leticia Bustamente-Rios of Honduras and Maria Alejandra Gamarro-Quinonez of Guatemala, adding that both women remain in custody.

Bustamente-Rios had previously been removed from the country and barred from reentering, while Gamarro-Quinonez was issued a final order of removal.

"These criminal illegal aliens victimized innocent children, the most vulnerable members of our society," ICE Director Todd M. Lyons said. "ICE is ensuring that these criminals will never do this again. Our mission is about public safety and removing dangerous threats from this country, and we will not rest until our communities are safe from these vicious criminals."

The DHS said Bustamente-Rios entered the U.S. illegally in 1997. That same year, she was charged with assault and a family offense, for which she was sentenced to five years in prison.

An immigration judge ordered her removed on Aug. 17, 1998, prohibiting her from ever reentering the U.S. She was deported on July 30, 1999.

She later committed a felony offense by reentering the country illegally.

Last month, ICE officers located and arrested Bustamente-Rios at her residence, and she remains in ICE custody pending her removal.

Federal officials detailed a separate case involving Gamarro-Quinonez, whose path into the U.S. unfolded differently.

Gamarro-Quinonez originally entered the U.S. legally on a visitor visa, though she failed to leave by April 27, 2007, as required by her visa conditions.

ICE encountered Gamarro-Quinonez on Aug. 14, 2023 after she was arrested and booked into the New Jersey Sussex County Jail for theft.

She was released after posting $2,000 and was given a notice to appear before a Department of Justice immigration judge.

An immigration judge in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, ordered her removed on April 1, 2025. ICE arrested her on Nov. 10 in Graham, Texas, where she had reported for probation after a judge deferred adjudication in her child endangerment and abandonment case, the DHS said.

Like Bustamente-Rios, the DHS said Gamarro-Quinonez will remain in ICE custody pending her removal.