Thread: 284 arrested in ICE operation targeting criminal aliens TX.

I.C.E. News Release

February 26 2010

284 arrested in ICE operation targeting criminal aliens throughout Texas

Nearly 160 with violent criminal histories arrested in 3-day operation

DALLAS - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its law enforcement partners arrested 284 foreign nationals with criminal records during a three-day enforcement surge throughout Texas, making it the biggest operation targeting at-large criminal aliens ever carried out by ICE in the state.

During the operation, which concluded late Thursday, ICE officers and agents worked in teams with the U.S. Marshals Service, Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service and local law enforcement agencies. Of the 284 arrested, nearly 160 foreign nationals have violent criminal histories - such as homicide, assault and robbery - and more than 20 have convictions for sexual offenses. Of the total arrested, 18 have already been removed from the country.

At a news conference Friday morning, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for ICE John Morton announced the results of the special operation, which involved more than 280 federal and local law enforcement officers and agents. Assistant Secretary Morton cited the operation as another example of the vital role multi-agency cooperation and targeted immigration enforcement play in protecting our communities.

"We are a compassionate nation with a proud history of immigration," said Morton. "But we are also a nation governed by laws specifically designed to protect its citizens and residents. Those who come to the United States to prey upon our neighbors and communities will be prosecuted for their crimes and ultimately returned to their home countries. The results of this week's operation demonstrate ICE's commitment to that principle."

Arrests in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area accounted for the largest number of apprehensions during the operation where a total of 119 criminal aliens were taken into custody. San Antonio recorded the next highest number of arrests with 73. The arrestees, 259 men and 25 women, represent more than 22 different nations, including countries in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Because of their serious criminal histories and prior immigration arrest records, at least 23 of those arrested during the enforcement surge face federal prosecution for illegally reentering the country after being formally deported. A conviction for felony reentry carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Some of the worst of the offenders caught this week during Operation Cross Check include the following case examples:

•Juan Jose Lopez-Juarez, 36, from Mexico, was arrested at his home with the help of the Dallas County Constable Precinct Four. He was targeted and arrested in Dallas and is wanted in Michoacán, Mexico, for shooting and killing a 17-year-old boy while his mother pleaded for his life. Lopez-Juarez was originally deported in June 2000. ICE learned about his whereabouts from a tip made to our 24-hour tipline.
•Angel Gonzalez, from Mexico, was arrested Feb. 24 by ICE at his residence in Austin, Texas. He has a previous criminal history including a sexual offense against a child for which he was sentenced to three years in prison. Afterwards, ICE deported him. The U.S Attorney in the Western District of Texas has accepted him for prosecution for reentry after deportation.
•Ruiz Pina, from Mexico, was arrested by ICE agents in Houston on Feb. 24. He has convictions for unlawfully possessing a weapon, assault causing bodily injury, and drunken driving. PINA was ordered deported by a federal immigration judge in Houston, Texas, in 2005. He will be detained without bond at the Houston Contract Detention Facility pending removal from the United States.
Any of the foreign nationals arrested during this operation who have active warrants will be referred to the associated local law enforcement agency and ICE will place detainers to ensure they return to ICE custody following disposition of their criminal cases. Those who have outstanding orders of deportation, or who returned to the United States illegally after being deported, are subject to immediate removal from the country. The remaining individuals are in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge, or pending travel arrangements for removal in the near future.

This week's special enforcement action was spearheaded by ICE's Fugitive Operations Program, which is responsible for locating, arresting, and removing at large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives - aliens who have ignored final orders of deportation handed down by the nation's immigration courts. ICE's Fugitive Operations Teams (FOTs) give top priority to cases involving aliens who pose a threat to national security and public safety, including members of transnational street gangs and child sex offenders.

The officers who conducted this week's special operation received substantial assistance from ICE's Fugitive Operations Support Center (FOSC) located in South Burlington, Vt. The FOSC conducted exhaustive database checks on the targeted cases to help ensure the viability of the leads and accuracy of the criminal histories. The FOSC was established in 2006 to improve the integrity of the data available on at large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives nationwide. Since its inception, the FOSC has forwarded more than 150,000 case leads to ICE enforcement personnel in the field.

This week's enforcement operation is just one facet of the Department of Homeland Security's broader strategy to heighten the federal government's effectiveness at identifying and removing dangerous criminal aliens from the United States. Other initiatives that figure prominently in this effort are the Criminal Alien Program, Secure Communities and the agency's partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies under 287(g).

Largely as a result of these initiatives, ICE removed a total of 136,126 criminal aliens from the United States last year, a record number.

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

ICE comprises four integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities. For more information, visit www.ICE.gov. To report suspicious activity, call 1-866-347-2423.

Last Modified: Friday, February 26, 2010
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1002/100226dallas.htm

GO I.C.E.

"We are a compassionate nation with a proud history of immigration," said Morton. "But we are also a nation governed by laws specifically designed to protect its citizens and residents. Those who come to the United States to prey upon our neighbors and communities will be prosecuted for their crimes and ultimately returned to their home countries. "

Good to see that there is SOME serious effort by ICE. Let's see this happen nationwide and then I'll be impressed.

Originally Posted by TexasBorn

Good to see that there is SOME serious effort by ICE. Let's see this happen nationwide and then I'll be impressed.

More to come

February 26 2010

ICE arrests 49 in operation targeting criminals, fugitives

MILWAUKEE

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-189522.html

NOW WHEN ARE WE GOING TO CLOSE THE BORDER TO KEEP THEM FROM COMING RIGHT BACK IN ???

U.S. announces Texas roundup of 300 immigrants with criminal records

2:35 PM CT
02:58 PM CST on Friday, February 26, 2010
By DIANNE SOLIS / The Dallas Morning News
dsolis@dallasnews.com

Nearly 300 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions were arrested this week in Texas, federal immigration officials and prosecutors said today.

The largest number of arrests, 119, were in North Texas.

Of the total, about half of the immigrants had convictions for violent crimes or drug offenses. Most of the crimes were committed in the Untied States, authorities said.

"These are not people we want walking on our streets," said John Morton, the assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security who oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The arrests, though, raises questions about why the immigrants hadn’t been deported earlier, immediately after they'd served their time for criminal convictions.

Morton said scrutiny of inmates in federal and state prisons is good, and immigrants are generally removed from the country after serving their prison sentences. But there are large gaps in municipal and county jails.

A new program, called Secure Communities, seeks to link jail staff with federal data banks to ensure that those with criminal convictions are removed from the country. There are only 110 jail locations in the country that now use the program.

By the end of 2013, ICE would like coverage across the nation, Morton said.

Secure Communities has come under scrutiny for the relatively low number of persons caught who have been convicted of violent crimes – or what’s known in ICE as a "level one" offense.

Carrollton, Farmers Branch, Irving, Mesquite and Dallas and Denton counties are among the jurisdictions using Secure Communities processes. The program began in November 2008.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... cfa1e.html

Texas is a slightly safer place today because of this. Now let's go get the rest of them out of here.

Big Texas Round-Up Of Illegal Aliens With Criminal Records Ends
By Richard Connelly in Crime
Fri., Feb. 26 2010 @ 11:32AM

​If you're an illegal immigrant with a criminal record living in Houston, you can breathe easy. Or relatively easy, anyway.

A big statewide round-up aimed at people like you -- the largest such round-up in state history -- ended last night. So if you can lay low and live with your conscience, you should be okay.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced this morning that 284 foreign nationals with criminal records had been arrested in the three-day sweep dubbed Operation Crosscheck, no doubt in honor of the U.S. Olympic Hockey team as it goes for the gold.

"Those who come to the United States to prey upon our neighbors and communities will be prosecuted for their crimes and ultimately returned to their home countries. The results of this week's operation demonstrate ICE's commitment to that principle," ICE's John Morton said.

Houston racked up some serious stats in the operation. ICE says 59 were arrested here -- more than one-fifth of the state's total.


Said ICE:

'Of the 284 arrested, nearly 160 foreign nationals have violent criminal histories -- such as homicide, assault and robbery -- and more than 20 have convictions for sexual offenses. Of the total arrested, 18 have already been removed from the country. The arrestee totals include, 259 men and 25 women, representing more than 22 different nations, including countries in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.'

In Houston, 55 men and five women were arrested, from 12 different nations.

ICE said 23 of those arrested face charges of illegally re-entering the U.S. after being formally deported, which can carry a 20-year prison term.

http://oneoldvet.com/

http://blogs.houstonpress.com

59 illegal immigrants arrested in Houston
By JAMES PINKERTON
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Feb. 26, 2010, 7:11PM

Federal agents and local police across Texas arrested nearly 300 criminal immigrants last week, including 59 in Houston, in what officials called the largest operation of its type in the state.

The three-day enforcement surge targeted immigrants, both legal and undocumented, who failed to comply with an immigration judge's order to leave the county or who had committed crimes that made them deportable, officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

In Houston, ICE agents took 59 immigrants into custody, including 34 who were ICE criminal fugitives for not leaving the country after being ordered by an immigration court, said Matthew Baker, assistant field office director for ICE Detention and Removal Operations in Houston. Of the 284 immigrants arrested statewide, 54 were sought as criminal fugitives, he said.

“Something that is often missed is my fugitive teams are out there every singe day, doing this work,â€

ICE operation targets criminal aliens

by Chris Sadeghi / KENS 5
February 26, 2010 at 5:10 PM

A three-day roundup of criminal aliens took 31 such illegal immigrants off San Antonio streets.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement say Operation Cross Check led to the arrests of 284 illegal aliens statewide with criminal histories which include homicide, robbery, and sexual assault.

“If you come here illegally and commit crimes, a different kind of welcome awaits you.â€