ICE said this week that its officers conducted “a targeted vehicle stop” in New Jersey to detain a Peruvian immigrant who had a final deportation order. But the man ICE said it was looking for had self-deported three months ago — and had received compensation for voluntarily leaving the U.S.
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“It gave me goose bumps, because the accusation involves a very serious matter,” Friedrich Castillo-Ormeno told Noticias Telemundo in Spanish from Pisco, Peru, where he was born.
ICE had identified Castillo-Ormeno in a statement it released on Monday that said one of its officers was struck by a vehicle when they “attempted to conduct a vehicle stop” in Manahawkin, New Jersey, to arrest him.
“The driver then weaponized his vehicle and struck an officer resulting in the officer discharging his weapon,” ICE said.
The ICE officer received medical attention at a hospital after sustaining injuries to his legs.
Back in Peru, Castillo-Ormeno said he began receiving phone calls from relatives telling him his name was being tied to the ICE incident.
“It’s a serious matter that could affect me — perhaps now, perhaps in the future — because they are practically treating me like a criminal, and I just didn’t know what to do,” Castillo-Ormeno said.
Castillo-Ormeno had arrived to the U.S. in the summer of 2022. He remained in the country, continuously checking in with ICE, as his asylum case made its way through immigration court.
When his asylum process ended with an immigration judge issuing a final order of removal on Jan. 30, Castillo-Ormeno began to save up money to buy flights for his girlfriend, their child and himself to return to Peru, he said.
They left the U.S. on March 2 and arrived in Peru the following day. Castillo-Ormeno shared pictures of his plane tickets and the family’s flight back to Peru with Noticias Telemundo.
Castillo-Ormeno even applied for the CBP Home program that offers monetary incentives to people who decide to voluntarily leave the U.S.
“And sure enough, they gave me the incentive after verifying that I was in my country,” Castillo-Ormeno said. “If they hadn’t verified it, they wouldn’t have given me the incentive.”
Emails obtained by NBC News and Telemundo show Castillo-Ormeno got his CBP Home incentive in late April. Castillo-Ormeno and his girlfriend, who also applied, received payments of $2,600 each, Castillo-Ormeno said.
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security stood by ICE’s original statement about Castillo-Ormeno and the incident that injured one of its immigration officers.
“We never said Friedrich Castillo-Ormeno was the driver of the vehicle that was weaponized against our officer,” the statement reads. “We stand by our statement.”
According to DHS, ICE officers were conducting a “targeted immigration enforcement operation at Castillo-Ormeno’s last known address” when they saw someone “who looked similar to the target get into a van that departed the residence.”
On the same day immigration officials doubled down on their previous statements, federal prosecutors in New Jersey charged a different man with “weaponizing his vehicle” to assault an ICE officer.
They identified the man as 39-year-old Eduardo Cruz Garcia. According to DHS, he is “the suspect in Monday’s attack on federal law enforcement.” The agency described him as a Mexican national who is not authorized to be in the U.S. Cruz Garcia is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, DHS said.
A federal complaint alleges Cruz Garcia was driving a white van when immigration officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop. It accuses Cruz Garcia of refusing to open his car’s window, instead fleeing the scene and striking one of the officers with his van.
Benjamin West, a public defender representing Cruz Garcia, did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday. But he told The New York Times on Wednesday that his client was struck in the back of his right arm after the injured officer fired three shots.
In regard to Castillo-Ormeno, DHS said it is “glad” he self-deported and encouraged anyone not authorized to be in the country “to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live American dream.”
But following the apparent confusion over his identity, Castillo-Ormeno said he worries the incident may affect his chances of returning to the United States in the future or interrupt any processes to get his young daughter, who was born in the United States, her documents.
“I don’t think it’s fair for my reputation to be tarnished like that,” Castillo-Ormeno said, “especially because, as I said, it could affect me in the future.”
