Operation Salvo is a targeted immigration‑enforcement initiative in New York City that DHS launched after the July 19, 2025 shooting of an off‑duty Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer. It focuses on arresting non‑citizens whom DHS identifies as members of violent transnational gangs or as having serious criminal records, and has so far produced 54 arrests, about 60% of whom DHS says have already been removed from the United States.
There is no special new law for Operation Salvo; it is carried out under DHS’s existing statutory authorities to enforce immigration and customs law—primarily the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). These include provisions such as INA § 287 (8 U.S.C. § 1357), which authorizes immigration officers to interrogate, arrest, and detain non‑citizens suspected of being removable, and broader detention and removal authorities in 8 U.S.C. §§ 1226 and 1231 that ICE/ERO uses in removal cases.
• CBP (Customs and Border Protection): CBP is the DHS agency that manages border security and certain customs enforcement. In this case, the off‑duty officer who was shot works for CBP New York, which conceived Operation Salvo (“a ‘salvo of justice’”) and partnered with other agencies to target gang‑related non‑citizens in New York City.
• HSI (Homeland Security Investigations): HSI is the investigative arm of ICE that handles transnational crime, including gangs, weapons, and smuggling. DHS says HSI worked with the New York Police Department (NYPD) to locate and arrest the suspected shooter and driver in the July 19 attack, and is one of the core agencies whose investigative resources are combined in Operation Salvo.
• ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations): ERO is the ICE component responsible for arresting, detaining, and removing non‑citizens who are subject to deportation. In Operation Salvo, ERO’s role is to take custody of arrested individuals, pursue their immigration cases, and carry out removals; DHS reports that roughly 60% of the 54 people arrested under the operation have already been removed from the United States.
Kristi Noem is the United States Secretary of Homeland Security, the cabinet official who leads the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). She became the 8th Secretary of Homeland Security in 2025, after previously serving as governor of South Dakota and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Criminal illegal alien” is a political phrase used in DHS’s press release, not a precise term defined in federal statutes. In practice, DHS is referring to non‑U.S. citizens who:
Legally, U.S. immigration law distinguishes only between “citizens” and “aliens” (non‑citizens), and between those who are “admitted,” “lawfully present,” or “removable.” Immigration status for people arrested in operations like Salvo is determined by checking: • DHS and CBP/ICE immigration records for prior entries, visas, and prior removal orders; • visa and admission data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and CBP; • any prior immigration court decisions or removal orders in EOIR (immigration court) databases.
If records show the person entered without inspection, overstayed a visa, or violated status and is therefore removable under the INA, ERO can place them in removal proceedings or reinstate a prior removal order.
The Trinitarios are a Dominican‑origin street and prison gang that began among Dominican inmates in the New York state prison system in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and then expanded onto the streets of New York City and elsewhere in the Northeast. They are known for violent assaults, machete attacks, drug trafficking, and robberies.
In New York City, Trinitarios sets have been implicated in numerous violent crimes, including the widely publicized 2018 machete murder of 15‑year‑old Lesandro “Junior” Guzman‑Feliz in the Bronx, for which multiple Trinitarios members were convicted. Law‑enforcement reporting and prosecutions describe the gang as active in drug distribution, weapons offenses, and violent attacks in neighborhoods with large Dominican communities in the Bronx, Manhattan, and other boroughs.
DHS states that Operation Salvo has produced 54 arrests and that “roughly 60%” of those arrested have been removed from the country so far. That implies about 32 people have been removed and about 22 remain in U.S. custody or otherwise still in the United States.
The removals are carried out through standard immigration processes handled by ICE/ERO under the Immigration and Nationality Act—for example: • executing existing removal orders; • reinstating prior removal orders for people who unlawfully re‑entered after deportation; • or placing people into removal proceedings before an immigration judge and removing them once a final removal order is entered.
The DHS press release does not break down, case by case, which specific process was used for each individual.
There are parallel federal and state prosecutions arising from the July 19, 2025 shooting, but public documents do not yet provide a full, up‑to‑date breakdown of all charges and their current status.
Federal (SDNY): • The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has charged Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez and Christhian (also spelled Cristhian) Aybar‑Berroa, both Dominican nationals, in connection with the shooting of the off‑duty CBP officer in Fort Washington Park. • According to SDNY’s July 24, 2025 announcement, Mora Nunez is charged with possession of ammunition by an illegal alien (under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(5)), and Aybar‑Berroa is charged as an accessory after the fact and with related immigration‑status offenses. Those federal charges focus on firearms/ammunition and immigration‑related conduct, not attempted murder itself.
State (New York County District Attorney – Manhattan DA): • Separate state charges in Manhattan criminal court cover the violent conduct of the shooting and robbery. Reporting on the Manhattan DA’s filings indicates: – Mora Nunez has been charged with attempted murder (first and second degree), robbery, assault, and weapons possession under New York Penal Law. – Aybar‑Berroa has been charged with robbery, assault, and weapons possession related to driving the motorbike and participating in the attempted robbery. • These state prosecutions are being handled by the New York County District Attorney’s Office (often called the Manhattan DA), which typically leads on violent felonies committed in Manhattan.
Current status: As of the latest publicly available reporting, both men had been arrested and arraigned on the federal and state charges, but there were no final public records yet of trial outcomes or sentencing in either the SDNY case or the Manhattan DA case.