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Anti-ICE activists in East Boston blew an operation to arrest a child rapist who was living near an elementary school — he stayed on the streets four more weeks

Tuesday, March 17, 2026•
3 min read
MDN Staff
•
Anti-ICE activists in East Boston blew an operation to arrest a child rapist who was living near an elementary school — he stayed on the streets four more weeks

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BOSTON — A group of anti-ICE activists in East Boston blew a federal operation to arrest a Salvadoran fugitive wanted for child rape — a man who had been living near a Boston elementary school — keeping him on the streets for four additional weeks, according to a frustrated ICE agent who provided video of the incident to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin.
The agent told Melugin that on February 12, his team was conducting surveillance on the target's residence in East Boston, waiting for him to come outside, when activists quickly surrounded their vehicles. They blew whistles. They cursed at the agents. They told them they were traumatizing children at a nearby school down the street.
Their cover was blown. The whole neighborhood was alerted. The child rapist wasn't arrested.

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The fugitive, identified as Walter Roberto Vides-Ortez, is a Salvadoran national who crossed the Texas border illegally in 2016 — the same year El Salvador issued an arrest warrant for him for the offense of child rape. He had been living in East Boston, near an elementary school, ever since.
Melugin said the ICE agent asked him to sit on the videos until the target was in custody. Vides-Ortez was finally arrested on March 10 — four weeks after the activists blew the original operation.
The agent told Melugin this isn't a one-off. They deal with activist interference "almost every day."
Boston has been a flashpoint for anti-ICE activism for months. In August 2025, a candlelight vigil was held in East Boston after ICE detained activists who had fought for Massachusetts' driver's license law for undocumented immigrants. The city's sanctuary policies, championed by Mayor Michelle Wu, have made it one of the most difficult jurisdictions in the country for federal immigration agents to operate.
The activists who surrounded the ICE vehicles on February 12 had no idea who they were protecting. They saw federal agents in a neighborhood and decided that was enough.
The man they shielded from arrest was wanted for raping a child.

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