At least 30 illegal immigrants have faced legal repercussions for a slew of crimes within the past few months across Massachusetts, according to a Herald analysis of ICE-issued news releases since the start of August.

The analysis came days after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Patrick L. Lechleitner disclosed national data that brought light to what he described as the country’s “broken immigration system.”

In Massachusetts, Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston has published roughly 30 news releases on ICE-made arrests across the Commonwealth since Aug. 1.

Illegal immigrants taken into custody mostly came from El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Ecuador and Mexico.

One illegal immigrant, Yao Zhang, came from China, with the 43-year-old being arrested on July 5 in Medford for alleged sex crimes against a Massachusetts resident.

A majority of the alleged crimes are sex-related, including aggravated rape, sexual assault and possession of child sexual abuse material, the Herald analysis found.

The youngest illegal immigrant taken into custody was Akim Marc Desire, an 18-year-old Haitian national charged with sexually assaulting a Massachusetts resident under the age of 14 in Mansfield.

On the opposite end, the oldest resident is a 55-year-old Brazilian fugitive wanted by authorities in his home county to serve a prison term that resulted from an October 2023 rape conviction. The unnamed fugitive was arrested on July 31 in Fall River.

ICE Boston agents arrested another unnamed Brazilian fugitive, 54, in Worcester on Aug. 29 after authorities in Brazil issued a warrant for his arrest on Aug. 13 in connection to murder charges in his home country.

“This Brazilian fugitive fled justice in his home country and attempted to hide out in Massachusetts,” ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons said in a Sept. 10 release. “We can not allow our New England neighborhoods to become safe havens for international criminals hoping to escape the law.”

Nantucket served as a hot spot for the arrests, with ICE Boston bringing in five illegal immigrants during a multi-day “targeted” operation on the island earlier this month, spanning Sept. 10–12.

Agents arrested Angel Deras-Mejia on Sept. 12, charging the 30-year-old documented MS-13 gang member from Guatemala with disorderly conduct and two counts of assault and battery on a household member.

The multi-day effort also included the arrest of Salvadoran national Elmer Sola, 49, on charges of 11 alleged sex crimes including aggravated rape of a child.

Other notable arrests:

Haitian national Gasnoy Saintilme, his age not listed, was charged with conspiracy to violate drug laws, drug distribution, drug manufacturing and unlawfully carrying a dangerous weapon, in Worcester on Aug. 26.

Lyons, of the ERO Boston Field Office, commended the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office for honoring an immigration detainer on Saintilme.

Warley Neto, an unlawfully present 24-year-old Brazilian national charged with five counts of raping a Massachusetts minor, was arrested Aug. 23 in Edgartown, on Martha’s Vineyard.

Neto unlawfully entered the U.S. in March 2018, with Border Patrol serving him a notice to appear before an immigration judge and then releasing him from custody two days later.

Five years later, Edgartown Police arrested Neto in February 2023 for strangulation or suffocation, assault and battery on a family household member, and threat to commit a crime.

Edgartown District Court sentenced Neto to 364 days in prison but suspended all but 90 days of the sentence.

Charges were then elevated to the Dukes County Superior Court, where Neto was indicted for five counts of rape of a child and five counts of enticing of a child under 16 years old.

“We are grateful for the cooperation of the Dukes County Sheriff’s Office for prioritizing public safety and allowing Neto’s safe transfer of custody to ERO,” Lyons said in a Sept. 3 release. “Too often local jurisdictions refuse to honor immigration detainers and release dangerous offenders back into the community to reoffend.”

ERO Boston arrested Marc Kervens Beauvais on Aug. 13 in Peabody, charging the 34-year-old Haitian national with aggravated rape, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a pregnant victim and attempt to commit a crime.

Beauvais alleged infractions were at a migrant hotel shelter that the state’s Emergency Assistance program is overseeing, according to the state housing office. He was terminated and removed from the program when a “member of his household reported a domestic violence incident.”

Another alleged crime at a migrant hotel has received national attention – the case against Cory Alvarez, a 26-year-old Haitian national accused of raping a 15-year-old girl at a Rockland migrant hotel in March.

Alvarez had been free on $500 bail after a Plymouth court did not honor a federal immigration detainer before ICE arrested him on Aug. 13, according to that agency. He was also allegedly here as part of the Biden administration’s CHNV program, the Plymouth District Attorney’s Office told the Herald in August.

“He will have his day in court and ERO Boston will continue to cooperate with the criminal court system in Massachusetts,” Lyons said of Alvarez in an Aug. 13 release, “but we cannot allow any significant noncitizen threat to the children of our communities to potentially reoffend.”

In July, ERO Boston arrested Edilzar Morales-Barillas, a 35-year-old Guatemalan national charged locally with operating under the influence of liquor (fourth offense), possession of a Class B controlled substance, giving a false address with intent to hinder police, and operating motor revoked after operating under the influence.

Morales was previously removed from the United States and has been convicted locally of reckless endangerment of a child and drug distribution. He has three convictions for operating a vehicle under the influence of liquor.