WASHINGTON / NORTH CAROLINA — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a statement on October 20, 2026 highlighting five arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in North Carolina in recent weeks, describing those arrested by their criminal convictions. All details of the individual cases below are as stated by DHS in that release; no minor victim is named or identified in this report.

According to DHS, Nelson Alexander Chay, from Guatemala, was arrested in Siler City on October 2, with convictions for sixteen counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor — obscene material — and driving while intoxicated; DHS said he was lawfully admitted through California in May 2002 and has been placed in proceedings to terminate his lawful status. Gustavo Cardenas Arreola, from Mexico, was arrested in Graham on October 5, with convictions for ten counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, and DHS said it issued him a final order of removal on October 19.

DHS also listed Isidro Flores Rodriguez, from Mexico, arrested in Oxford on October 13 with a conviction for felony child abuse inflicting serious injury; Thong Vilaiphone, from Laos, arrested in China Grove on October 1 with convictions including possessing weapons of mass destruction, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and a felony probation violation, and a final removal order dating to 1997; and Francis Martinez Alvarez, from Honduras, arrested in New Hanover County on September 30 with convictions for robbery with a dangerous weapon and illegal re-entry, whom DHS said it deported on October 16 after an earlier deportation in 2007.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in the release that DHS would not stop until it had arrested and deported as many people unlawfully in the country as possible, framing the arrests as public-safety enforcement. That is the department's stated position, presented here as its claim.

The arrests sit inside a much larger enforcement surge in the state, independent of the DHS list. The Duke Chronicle reported on October 19, using government data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and processed by the Deportation Data Project, that North Carolina recorded 4,949 ICE arrests in the first seven months of 2026, more than double the 2,402 in the same period in 2025, and that Durham alone recorded 88 arrests in that period, up from 28 a year earlier. The Chronicle also noted a state law that took effect October 1, 2025 requiring local law enforcement to check the immigration status of people booked for a felony and notify ICE before release.

Sources: U.S. Department of Homeland Security release, 'DHS Highlights Worst Illegal Aliens Arrested in North Carolina,' October 20, 2026; The Duke Chronicle, 'Government data shows sharp increase in Durham ICE arrests this year,' October 19, 2026.