Thread: 15,770 Illegal aliens feel heat from ICE in Houston area

15,770 Illegal aliens feel heat from ICE in Houston area

Federal statistics show arrests up nearly 15 percent over previous year

By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 6, 2008, 11:14PM

Federal agents this year have arrested and removed 14.6 percent more illegal immigrants from the Houston area than last year, part of a stepped-up enforcement campaign across the nation.

In the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Houston returned 15,770 illegal immigrant to their native countries, compared with 13,760 the previous year.

Of those removed this past fiscal year, 48 percent had previous criminal convictions, ICE officials said.

"ICE's primary enforcement priority is to target those who pose the greatest threat to public safety — criminal aliens," said Kenneth Landgrebe, ICE's director of detention and removal operations in the agency's Houston district, which encompasses 53 counties.

"Our latest arrest and removal statistics reflect that priority," Landgrebe said. "However, I also want to emphasize that anyone who is in the U.S. illegally runs the risk of being identified, located, arrested and ultimately deported."


Crimes not listed
The ICE statistics did not break down the nationalities of those removed or the type of crimes they committed.

However, one veteran Houston immigration lawyer said many of those deported are not, for the most part, hardened criminals.

''A large percentage of people who had run-ins with the criminal justice system have nonviolent offenses, misdemeanors," said Nancy Falgout, who ran a nonprofit immigration counseling project for the YMCA for 13 years. ''The great majority of them are not murderers or robbers — they're not people who pose a serious threat to security."


Fugitive cases
Nationally, ICE removed more than 349,000 illegal immigrants in the recent fiscal year, a 20 percent increase from the previous year.

The Houston area's four fugitive teams arrested nearly 1,600 fugitive immigrants in the recent fiscal year, a 33 percent increase over the previous year.

The city has one of the largest backlogs of fugitive cases, which consist primarily of illegal immigrants who have not complied with an order from an immigration judge to leave the country.

In South and Central Texas, where ICE has expanded its detention centers and rented others from counties and corporations, agents deported more than 53,000 illegal immigrants in the last fiscal year.

james.pinkerton@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 99683.html

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''A large percentage of people who had run-ins with the criminal justice system have nonviolent offenses, misdemeanors," said Nancy Falgout, who ran a nonprofit immigration counseling project for the YMCA for 13 years. ''The great majority of them are not murderers or robbers — they're not people who pose a serious threat to security."

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