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A view of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office in St. Rose, Louisiana, on December 1, 2025, as part of a large-scale enforcement operation known as "Swamp Sweep" take place across neighborhoods and workplaces in the area.
AFP / Adam Gray
MANILA, Philippines — A 33-year-old Filipina with a criminal record was among several undocumented immigrants arrested by U.S. immigration authorities during New Year celebrations, according to American officials.
In a press release on Friday, January 2, the US Homeland Security Department designated Karen Empaynado as one of the 10 “criminal illegal aliens” that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested during a New Year crackdown.
Empaynado was convicted of burglary, grand theft and battery in Deltona, Florida. According to the Volusia County Corrections, she had already been arrested at least nine times before the New Year arrest.
Criminal history. Her criminal record dates back to 2011, when she was first arrested as a 19-year-old in Florida for trespassing. Just months after her release, she faced two charges of grand theft and witness tampering.
In 2012, she was taken into custody again, but this time for violating a domestic violence injunction, followed by a fourth arrest on charges of armed burglary, grand theft and being an undocumented immigrant.
She faced two more arrests in 2013 for committing burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, or simply entering an unoccupied residence with the intent of doing a crime.
A decade later, she was arrested for battery, which involves intentionally touching or striking someone without their consent.
But just two months after being released pending pre-trial, she was arrested again for driving without a valid license, using an unregistered vehicle, and while still on probation for a domestic violence case.
Her most recent recorded arrest in Volusia County was in 2025 on an out-of-county warrant related to felony charges for a second subsequent offense of battery.
ICE New Year arrests
Other individuals taken into custody by ICE include undocumented immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Cuba — all of whom had a criminal record.
Since US President Donald Trump was reelected in 2024, he has intensified enforcement against immigrants, implementing strict anti-immigration measures and prioritizing mass deportations, which have also indirectly put legal immigrants at risk.
