An unlawful immigrant who re-entered the U.S. 5 instances said his ingesting is the “mistake” that lastly led to his arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement early Thursday morning.

Ernesto Alejandro Perez-Garcia, a Mexican nationwide, was arrested by ICE in Redondo Beach, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. Perez-Garcia has a historical past of arrests courting to 2003 for alcohol-, managed substance- and driving-related offenses, as properly as making terroristic threats and illegally re-entering the U.S. ICE said he illegally entered the nation 5 instances and made 4 further makes an attempt to enter.

Fox News Digital witnessed ICE arrest Perez-Garcia on Thursday. When brokers first encountered him on the Redondo Beach esplanade, he denied his identification. However, when confronted with a earlier mugshot, Perez-Garcia acknowledged that he was the man they were looking for.

After ICE booked and processed him, Perez-Garcia informed Fox News Digital that he lied to brokers “to see if I could get away with it.” He said that after he was confronted with his mugshot, he realized, “I’m busted, you know, in other words, I’m f—ed.”

Perez-Garcia said that despite nationwide headlines about ICE operations, he did not expect to be arrested Thursday morning. He said he was on his standard morning stroll when brokers encountered him.

Ernesto Alejandro Perez-Garcia, a Mexican nationwide who illegally re-entered the U.S. 5 instances, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Redondo Beach, Calif. FOX NEWS

“Once I saw the officer … with the picture of me, there was no way I was going to run,” he said.

“At the end of the day,” he continued, “it’s the alcohol that got me back in this mess.” While he said a pal’s current loss of life “got me caught up [in alcoholism],” he said, “It shouldn’t have, so it’s my mistake, and I’ve got to be responsible for that.”

Perez-Garcia first entered the U.S. at an unknown date and location. The Torrance Police Department in California initially arrested him on April 3, 2003, for driving with out a license. He was convicted and sentenced to 30 days. Over the next few years, he was also convicted of driving with a suspended license and possessing managed substance paraphernalia.

Perez-Garcia tried to lie about his identification. FOX NEWS

Perez-Garcia has a historical past of arrests courting back to 2003 for alcohol-, managed substance- and driving-related offenses, as properly as making terroristic threats. FOX NEWS

According to ICE, the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, convicted Perez-Garcia on April 10, 2006, of threatening crime with intent to terrorize. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail and three years of probation. ICE eliminated him to Mexico for the first time the next month.

However, he re-entered the U.S. at an unknown date and location. On June 27, 2006, he was arrested again for threatening crime with intent to terrorize.

Over the next 20 years, Perez-Garcia was arrested for numerous offenses, including repeated makes an attempt to cross the southern border in Tecate, California.

Since 2020, Perez-Garcia has been arrested 5 instances for disorderly conduct, including 4 arrests by the Redondo Beach Police Department. He was arrested twice this 12 months for disorderly conduct, on April 17 and May 8. ICE said the division declined to honor its detainer requests twice, in 2020 and again in 2026.

Perez-Garcia claimed that the Redondo Beach Police Department “let me know a couple years ago” that ICE was wanting for him.

“Redondo PD had told me about it, you know, Redondo PD was cool with it. They let me go with it, you know what I mean, but they also told me I had a warrant for my arrest,” he said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Redondo Beach Police Department for remark on Perez-Garcia’s assertion.

Los Angeles Field Office Director Tom Giles spoke with Fox News Digital shortly before ICE arrested Perez-Garcia. Giles emphasised that “when these detainers aren’t honored, what it does for us is it sends our officers out into the community, putting our officers at risk and other community members at risk to go out and try to apprehend this individual.”

“So, for sanctuary policies, what we ask these jurisdictions is to cooperate with us,” he said, including, “It will make our communities safer.”

Perez-Garcia said he believes his arrest by ICE is “fair.”

“I was trying to lie about it because I actually don’t got nothing there in Mexico right now, you know what I mean? I grew up right here, and this is what I know,” he said. Perez-Garcia also said his kids dwell in the U.S. and that he has heard tales about how “so hard” it is to return to the U.S.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, to tell you the truth,” he said. “I already knew it was going to catch up to me; I just didn’t know when.”

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