8X Deported Kidnapper Removed by ICE to Mexico

HOUSTON, Texas — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers removed a Mexican national who was convicted of kidnapping on Thursday. The criminal alien has a lengthy criminal history and has been deported eight times.

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers deported 43-year-old Baltazar Pantoja Calderon to his home country late last week, according to information received from ICE officials in Houston.

According to ICE, Pantoja illegally entered the U.S. eight times. After his first arrest in May 1999, the Mexican national voluntarily deported himself to Mexico. He was ordered removed and sent back to Mexico on July 1, 2008; Sept. 1, 2010; Oct. 29, 2014; March 18, 2015; May 3, 2017; and Feb. 2, 2018.

ICE reported the following criminal convictions:

• kidnapping May 12, 2010;
• driving while intoxicated May 29, 2008;
• illegal entry July 3, 2018; and
• resisting arrest March 10, 2025.

“The complete lack of respect for our nation’s system of laws that this criminal alien has displayed over the past quarter of a century has in recent years, unfortunately, become more commonplace,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford. “The law enforcement community in South Texas is united in our determination to restore sovereignty over our southern border and has banded together to remove these dangerous criminal aliens from our country to restore law and order in our communities.”

In circumstances like this, ICE makes a referral for prosecution for illegal re-entry after removal to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas. At press time, it was unclear if this referral was made or if the U.S. Attorney declined to prosecute the eight-time deportee.