Jaime Avalos-Jimenez, 67, was arrested by ICE in San Francisco’s Livermore neighborhood on September 4 and deported to El Salvador on September 18, according to the New York Post. The Department of Homeland Security accused him of concealing his military service and assisting in abuses during El Salvador’s civil war.
What officials allege—and what remains unclear
The Post reported that Avalos-Jimenez served in Salvadoran military intelligence from 1977 through 1988, including with Destacamento Militar No. 7. Officials have accused the unit of abuses including torture, killings and disappearances, and alleged that Avalos-Jimenez assisted in abuses of detainees suspected of links to the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. These are allegations about his role; the account does not describe a criminal conviction or establish an individual finding of responsibility.
According to the same report, Avalos-Jimenez entered the United States in 1989 and later sought immigration relief and benefits. DHS said he misrepresented his service and involvement in potential abuses on applications that were denied. Officials said he had no known criminal arrests in the United States. The available account does not specify the legal order underlying his removal.
Immigration context
USCIS lists ordering, inciting, assisting or otherwise participating in persecution on specified protected grounds as a potential bar to an asylum grant. That general rule does not show which legal grounds applied to Avalos-Jimenez or determine the outcome of his case, as USCIS guidance makes clear.
ICE’s Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center handles human-rights-violator and war-crimes cases, according to the agency. Its role provides broader institutional context for the case, but does not independently verify the allegations against Avalos-Jimenez.
