ICE has arrested two more illegal Haitian immigrants in Ohio who are accused of illegally receiving food stamps.
Fox News reporter Bill Melugin reported on Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sources confirmed the two arrests. Both men had final deportation orders against them, and both were allowed into the country during the Biden administration, one of whom entered the U.S. through the CBP One mobile app.
Icles Cerome was picked up Monday in Westerville. On December 29, 2023, he illegally crossed the border into Brownsville, Texas, and Border Patrol captured and released him. On January 30, 2024, about a month after he arrived in the United States, an immigration judge ordered his deportation. Fox was told he admitted to ICE officials that he was receiving SNAP benefits in Ohio.
Clarino Duclair was arrested Tuesday in Columbus. He entered the country from the San Ysidro, California border crossing on March 29, 2024, using the CBP One app, and an immigration judge signed his final deportation order on January 20, 2025. An active bench warrant was issued for his arrest in Franklin County. Duclair told agents he lived in Ohio with his Haitian wife and the couple’s 1-year-old U.S. citizen son.
Both arrests are part of a nationwide operation launched by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last week. Five people participated in the first round — four Haitian nationals and one Cuban national — in what DHS called the “opening salvo” of the larger push.
The Springfield News-Sun reported that the first round of arrests of four Haitian citizens, all in the Ohio case, included a man who was detained near a Springfield mall in August after he tried to escape agents on foot.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said illegal immigrants who have no right to enter the United States are the least deserving of SNAP benefits.
“These programs are only for Americans,” Mullin said.
About 41,900 noncitizens in Ohio received SNAP benefits last year, many of them legal permanent residents, according to the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.
Federal prosecutors have filed separate SNAP cases in Ohio, Illinois, Oregon, Massachusetts and Arizona, including an indictment in Ohio over an alleged $29.7 million scheme.
The Justice Department said an initial investigation uncovered nearly $42 million in SNAP fraud, with total losses to the government approaching $45 million.