Thread: Waukegan:Criminal aliens arrested in county immigration swee

Our community is a bit safer today...


Criminal aliens arrested in county immigration sweeps
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June 3, 2010
By FRANK ABDERHOLDEN fabderholden@stmedianetwork.com

Federal immigration agents have arrested 72 foreign nationals from 17 countries in the Chicago area, including Lake County.

Sweeps by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Fugitive Operations teams were made between May 10 and May 28 targeting immigration fugitives and criminal aliens.

In Waukegan, agents arrested a 54-year-old Jamaican national May 25 outside his Waukegan residence. He had a prior criminal conviction for possessing a firearm and he had a loaded pistol at the time of his arrest.

Also arrested was a 50-year-old previously deported Mexican national. He was arrested May 24 in Waukegan because he had prior convictions for cocaine possession and retail theft.

Both individuals remain in ICE custody pending removal. For privacy reasons, ICE does not release the names of aliens arrested on administrative immigration charges.

Besides Waukegan, other county arrests were made in Mundelein, North Chicago and Round Lake.

Of the 72 arrested, 59 are fugitives with outstanding deportation orders. Immigration fugitives are aliens who fail to appear for their immigration hearings, or who abscond after being ordered by a federal immigration judge to leave the country.

The remaining 13 were arrested based on their prior criminal or immigration histories. Some of their convictions and arrests were for drug possession, domestic battery, drunken driving, retail theft, residential burglary and larceny. Seven of those arrested were previously deported aliens.

Those arrested, 65 men and seven women, represent the following countries: China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Israel, Jamaica, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Russia and South Korea.

"A top priority for the ICE is to enhance public safety by locating and arresting criminal aliens and fugitives, with the ultimate goal of removing them from our country in a safe and humane manner," said Ricardo Wong, field office director for the ICE Office of Detention and Removal Operations in Chicago.

"ICE is dedicated to arresting violators who blatantly flout our nation's immigration laws," he said.

The arrestees will be processed administratively for removal from the United States.

Fugitives with outstanding deportation orders, and those who returned to the U.S. illegally after being deported, are subject to immediate removal from the country. All others are pending a hearing before an immigration judge.

Last year, ICE agents made more than 35,000 arrests nationwide. More than 31,000 of those arrests, or nearly 89 percent, involved immigration fugitives and aliens with prior criminal convictions.

ICE's Fugitive Operations Program 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.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/news ... 03.article

GO ICE GO

gotta love reading stories like this