Thread: Lousiana: Federal agents arrest 38 foreigners

Federal agents arrest 38 foreigners
33 men, 5 women nabbed in Elmwood
Friday, May 18, 2007
By Richard Rainey
East Jefferson bureau
Immigration agents arrested 38 foreign nationals in two raids on an Elmwood food distributor, authorities said Thursday.


Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stormed the buildings of N&F Logistics at 1300 Edwards Ave. twice Wednesday morning, the agency said. They arrested 33 men and five women from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and China, agency spokesman Temple Black said.

The round-up was the second this year in Jefferson Parish and the third in the New Orleans area to be made public by federal immigration agents.

Immigration agents raided MAS Industries, a military supply company in Metairie, on April 14 and arrested 17 people. Two weeks later, agents rounded up 88 people in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish at various locations as part of a campaign to deport illegal immigrants suspected of committing felonies.

The raids hallmark a federal push to form a "fugitive operations team" in southeastern Louisiana, Black said. The cadre would be comprised of agents specifically assigned to hunt down illegal immigrants with criminal records.

"This is for people who actually are ordered to leave the country" but have "melted back into society," he said.

A call for Jin Zhang, the N&F Logistics manager listed on the company's 2007 commercial records, went unanswered Thursday.

The U.S. attorney's office in New Orleans is processing the arrested individuals for criminal backgrounds and possible deportation, Black said.

Deputies with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and agents with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration assisted in Wednesday's raid. Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, would not comment, and a telephone call to the FDA's regional office in Nashville, Tenn. went unreturned.

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