Federal agents caught a man from El Salvador this month. He was hiding in Massachusetts. Officers with ICE made the arrest. ICE is short for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The man's name is Leonel Santos-Diaz. He is from El Salvador. Police there want him badly.

Santos-Diaz faces four charges back home. Court papers list a serious murder charge. They also list human trafficking. That means moving people for forced work or sex. The papers add sexual assault. They add one more charge, too: disorderly conduct. All four charges are from El Salvador. None are U.S. charges.

ICE agents caught Santos-Diaz on September 2. They found him in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Chelsea sits just north of Boston. Agents did not just get lucky. ICE says they had a plan to find him. They knew his name. They knew where to look.

This was not his first run in with ICE. The U.S. had sent him home twice before. Both times, he snuck back in. He kept coming back after being sent home twice. Each time he crossed the border again, he broke U.S. law all over again.

ICE says he is still locked up. Agents placed him in immigration court proceedings, the process that can lead to deportation. That is separate from the criminal case still open back in El Salvador.

David Wesling runs the ICE office in Boston. He spoke out about the case.

"Sadly, this is yet another example of what the dishonest media will portray as a non-criminal arrest, despite Leonel Santos-Diaz being charged with aggravated homicide and human trafficking in his home country," Wesling said.

The arrest comes at a tense time in the state. Governor Maura Healey signed a new law in August. People call it the Protect Act. It limits ICE arrests at schools. It limits arrests at courthouses too. Hospitals and daycare centers get the same rule. The law also blocks new deals between ICE and local cops. Those deals let local police help ICE find and hold people for deportation.

Wesling had sharp words for the law. He called it "ironically named." He said the law was built to hide people like Santos-Diaz.

ICE's Boston office also posted online. It called Santos-Diaz one of the "dangerous criminal aliens" the state wants to shield.

Fans of the new law see it a different way. They say it builds trust between cops and immigrant families. They say kids should not fear ICE at school. Sick families should not skip the doctor out of fear either. Fans say most immigrants in the state have never broken a law.

ICE sees it the other way. Wesling and other ICE bosses say the law ties their hands. They say it makes it harder to catch real bad guys. They say cases like this one prove their point.

Santos-Diaz has not been found guilty in any court yet. Right now, he is only accused. No trial date has been set.

ICE has not said if he will be sent back to face trial. He may also face new U.S. charges. Crossing the border after two deportations can be its own federal crime.

For now, Santos-Diaz sits in ICE custody. His case will move through immigration court first. What happens after that is still up in the air. ICE says it will keep looking for other fugitives hiding in the state.

Everyone is presumed innocent until proved otherwise.