EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — A native El Pasoan has been named the new field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in El Paso, Texas.
Mary De Anda-Ybarra has more than 27 years of federal law enforcement experience, most recently serving as acting field office director in El Paso for the past seven months and acting field office director for the ERO Dallas field office from October 2021 to July 2022.
De Anda-Ybarra will replace Juan L. Acosta, who was promoted to assistant director for ICE ERO in Washington, D.C., in overseeing 51 counties in West Texas and the state of New Mexico, including five suboffices and four detention facilities. Her selection became official in February, according to an IEC news release.
ERO is the principal federal law enforcement authority in charge of domestic immigration enforcement, mainly the arrest and removal of those who pose a threat to the U.S. and skirt U.S. immigration laws. The agency focuses on interior enforcement operations, management of detained and non-detained populations, and the repatriation of noncitizens who have received final removal orders.
De Anda-Ybarra graduated with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso.
She began her career with the federal government in 1996 as an immigration inspector with Immigration and Naturalization Service in El Paso and has risen through the ranks in numerous leadership positions since then:
- In 2007, she transferred to ICE’s Detention and Removal Operations as an immigration enforcement agent in El Paso.
- In 2009, she was promoted to deportation officer and worked at the El Paso Processing Center’s Removals Section and the Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral, New Mexico.
- In 2015, De Anda-Ybarra was promoted to supervisory detention and deportation officer at the Otero County Processing Center and oversaw the Interior Repatriation Initiative. She also assisted as chief of staff and acting assistant field office director for the Albuquerque suboffice and the Otero detention facility.
- On June 12, 2016, De Anda-Ybarra was selected as assistant field office director at the El Paso Processing Center, where she oversaw detention, detained and non-detained dockets, family unit cases, juvenile cases, travel, air operations, the West Texas Detention Facility, and DHS initiatives such as the Migrant Protection Protocol. In that role, she also served as the acting deputy field office director and acting officer in charge.
- In March 2020, De Anda-Ybarra transferred to the ERO Dallas field office as its deputy field office director, and in 2021 served as the acting field office director for both the ERO Dallas and the ERO Salt Lake City offices.
“With her lengthy service record and extensive knowledge of ICE and ERO operations, policy, and programs, I am confident Ms. De Anda-Ybarra will make lasting contributions to the ICE mission,” said ICE’s Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Tae D. Johnson.