BOSTON — An alleged MS-13 gang member from El Salvador who blew off a federal immigration judge's removal order for more than six years is now in ICE custody, the agency announced this week.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston office said it arrested Walter Alexander Garcia Ramirez on April 30. According to ICE, Garcia Ramirez crossed into the United States illegally in 2018 and was ordered removed by an immigration judge on Nov. 12, 2019 — a deportation order he ignored for nearly six and a half years before federal officers tracked him down.

Ramirez entered the United States illegally in 2018 and was ordered removed by an immigration judge on Nov. 12, 2019.

ICE described Garcia Ramirez as an "illegal alien and alleged MS-13 gang member." MS-13, formally known as Mara Salvatrucha, took root among Salvadoran refugees in Los Angeles in the 1980s and has since metastasized into one of the country's most violent transnational street gangs, with documented cells across New England. The Trump administration has made the gang a top federal enforcement priority.

ERO Boston used the announcement to underscore the agency's removal mission.

ICE did not disclose where in Massachusetts Garcia Ramirez was arrested, whether he faces any new criminal charges, or what specific evidence ties him to MS-13. He remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.