Venezuelan National Indicted After Allegedly Punching Federal Officer During Ohio Operation

An unauthorized immigrant accused of punching an immigration officer has been formally indicted on one count of assaulting a federal officer in Ohio. Kendry Jose Cubian-Perez, 40, a Venezuelan national, was arrested on May 8.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio, a task force of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) was searching for a different unauthorized immigrant with a criminal history at a home in the 4000 block of Greensview Drive in Powell.

At approximately 5:45 a.m., Cubian-Perez came out of the house. When he saw law enforcement officials, he got into a vehicle registered in the target’s name and attempted to flee. An Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officer followed him on foot and tried to apprehend him.

At that point, Cubian-Perez allegedly punched the officer in the face. Court documents state that the attack punctured the officer’s tooth and caused a wound near his chin. However, Cubian-Perez allegedly continued to strike the officer. Meanwhile, other officers arrived at the scene and arrested him.

The injured agent later felt dizzy and vomited and was later taken to a hospital. Meanwhile, federal officers checked Cubian-Perez’s documents and determined he was not the target they originally intended to arrest. However, they found that he had also entered the country illegally.

On May 19, a grand jury indicted Cubian-Perez. If found guilty, he could face upto 20 years in prison. U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II highlighted the importance of the indictment in an official statement and said, “We will not tolerate assaults against law enforcement officers. As today’s indictment shows, those who threaten the safety of our federal law enforcement partners will be prosecuted.”

In recent months, there have been several incidents where unauthorized immigrants were accused of assaulting law enforcement officers. In December 2025, Diego Barron-Esquivel, an undocumented man from Mexico, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for assaulting and strangling an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.

In February 2025, two ICE agents in Wichita, Kansas, were on the lookout for Barron-Esquivel, who had been charged with multiple felonies. As officers attempted to arrest him, Barron-Esquivel resisted by punching one of the officers and strangling him with a badge cord. The man was later arrested by local law enforcement.

A similar incident occurred in Houston, Texas, in November 2025, when El Salvador national Walter Leonel Perez Rodriguez allegedly beat an ICE officer with a metal coffee cup during his arrest. Rodriguez had a violent criminal history, including s—-- assault of a child. The officer suffered a wound to his mouth and burns to his face.

Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin discussed the rise in attacks against federal officers and said, “Our brave ICE officers are facing record-high assaults—including a 1000% increase in assaults against them—as they lock up p—------ and other depraved criminals to keep American families safe.”

“On November 3, as an ICE officer attempted to detain a convicted pedophile, the illegal alien beat him with a metal coffee cup, resulting in severe burns and 13 stitches,” McLaughlin added.