Thread: 1/5th of all the illegals nabbed in sweep are in San Diego

County arrests account for one-fifth of national immigration sweep

SAN DIEGO – U.S. immigration officials Wednesday announced a countywide immigration roundup of 402 foreigners – including criminal aliens, fugitives and gang members.

It was part of a national six-day sweep – dubbed “Operation Return to Sender” – in which agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ensnared 2,179 people in more than 30 states.

All of those arrested were in the country illegally and are to be deported or, in some cases, prosecuted.

The foreign nationals arrested in San Diego County accounted for nearly one-fifth of all those picked up in the national sweep. California had the most arrests of any state, a total of 722.

Most of those arrested here are from Mexico; several are from Guatemala. They have all been sent back to their home countries, according to local immigration agency spokeswoman Lauren Mack.

The nationwide operation was conducted on six non-consecutive days beginning May 26. Almost half of those arrested in the nationwide sweep had criminal records involving such offenses as drug trafficking, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, abduction and sexual assault on a minor, Julie L. Myers, the assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a news release.

One of the men arrested in San Diego County had been convicted of molesting a 14-year-old girl in 2003, Mack said.

Of the total arrested nationwide, about 830 have been deported so far, Mack said. Approximately 146 of those arrested had convictions for sexual offenses involving minors and about 367 were members or associates of violent street gangs, authorities said.

Among the others taken into custody were a violent Salvadoran gang member with a long criminal history who was convicted in a stabbing that left a 13-year-old boy paralyzed, and a Mexican national whose violent criminal history dates back to 1985, with arrests for drug trafficking, aggravated robbery and making terrorist threats.

Immigration agents specifically targeted people who had been issued final orders of deportation, but at some of the addresses they checked they also found others in the country illegally, and took them into custody as well.

They said they apprehended 121 people on criminal charges.

“America's welcome does not extend to immigrants who come here to commit crimes. ICE will leave no stone unturned in hunting down and deporting aliens who victimize our communities,” Myers said in a news release.

The operation, which started on May 26, involved virtually every field office in the nation and resulted in arrests from coast to coast.

While California had the most arrested, Mack said it was followed by Texas, with 424; Massachusetts, with 157; New Jersey, with 116; and New York and Michigan, which both had 110.

In Louisiana, 78 people were apprehended, and in Arizona, 49.

The arrestees hailed from countries from all over the world including Angola, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq, Italy, Pakistan, Peru, Poland and Uzbekistan.

The arrests are the part of the interior immigration enforcement strategy that was announced in April 20 by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

That's why we call San Diego Mexico's Finest City

Hmmm.....only 116 in New Jersey? Maybe that's because we [mod edit] refuse to hire them for jobs and also boycott businesses that employ them. Heck, cockroaches have a better chance to survive here than illegal aliens.....damn taxes are even driving away the middle class.....

Yeah right your highness the ICE princess. Then explain to us why, if you say they aren't welcome in this country and they will not be allowed back in; time after time when they have been deported they return to this country and commit more crimes against Americans, in many cases graduating to more serious crimes as murder?

Yeah, I guess that's why she does nothing to end the treasonous policies of sanctuary cities, like San Diego, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, etc. And allowing cities like L.A. to have ordinances like Special Order 40, which bars police from even contacting known illegal alien thugs and gang bangers, even when they know them to be previously deported criminals, even members of MS-13.

There are more than 5,400 people currently facing deportation orders in San Diego, Mack said.

Wonder what the holdup is?