Published: June 21, 2011
Updated: 3:58 p.m.

2,400 illegal immigrants nabbed in operation

BY CINDY CARCAMO
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Immigration officials arrested 2,400 convicted criminals who are suspected of being in the country illegally and immigration fugitives during a seven-day enforcement operation last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced Tuesday.

In Orange County, immigration agents arrested 32 people — mostly in Anaheim and Santa Ana, according to ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice. Agents arrested 158 people total in California.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested 2,400 pople during a seven-day enforcement operation, immigration officials said.

Agents arrested eight people in Anaheim, two in Fountain Valley, two in Fullerton, four in Garden Grove, one in Huntington Beach, two in La Habra, one in Laguna Hills, one in Laguna Niguel, one in Lake Forest, one in Midway City, one in Placentia, seven in Santa Ana and one in Tustin.

The "Cross Check" enforcement operation — which targeted people who are in the country illegally with criminal records and immigration fugitives — spanned 50 states and involved 24 ICE Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations field offices, according to an ICE statement.

Those taken into custody had prior criminal convictions, such as armed robbery, drug trafficking, child abuse, sexual crimes against minors, aggravated assault, theft, forgery and driving under the influence, according to a press release.

The arrests are part of the Obama's administration effort to focus on nabbing those who are in the country illegally and also broken criminal laws, ICE officials stated.

"The results of this operation underscore ICE's ongoing focus on arresting those convicted criminal aliens who prey upon our communities, and tracking down fugitives who game our nation's immigration system," ICE Director John Morton said in a written statement.

Some of those arrested included a Mexican national who lived in North Hills, Ca. He had been convicted of an aggravated felony sex crime and rape of an unconscious victim, according to ICE officials.

Another arrestee included 38-year-old Phillipino man convicted of battery on a law enforcement officer, an ICE statement said.

So far ICE has removed a record number — more than 109,700 people — who are in the country illegally with a criminal background from the United States in fiscal year 2011

Contact the writer: 714-796-7924 or ccarcamo@ocregister.com

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