Posted on Mon, Jun. 25, 2007
Immigration officers nab 61
Sixty-one foreign nationals accused of ignoring deportation orders issued by immigration judges and violating other immigration laws were arrested by immigration officers in several actions across Florida last week.
The arrests are expected to be announced by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement today along with 41 other detentions of wanted foreign nationals in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The detentions are part of a stepped-up campaign of immigration raids and sweeps across the country. They include alleged absconders from deportation orders, convicts, visa violators and others who sneaked across the border without papers.

Barbara Gonzalez, a U.S. ICE spokeswoman in Miami, said the arrests in Florida occurred in Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Nineteen of those detained in Florida had criminal convictions, she said.

Among those arrested in Hillsborough County were Mohamed Nasser Abuikhdair of Israel who had been convicted for drug possession and Mejnun Yuce of Turkey, convicted of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and criminal mischief.

''The message is clearly that those who are in violation of U.S. immigration laws should not be surprised if they are arrested,'' Gonzalez said.

In California, 175 immigration law violators were picked up in Orange County -- including 26 who had evaded deportation orders.

In a separate statement last week, ICE officials said stepped-up enforcement has for the first time led to a drop in the number of immigrants wanted for evading deportation orders. Between 2003 and 2006, the agency said, the number of immigrant fugitives grew by an average of 5,682 per month or 68,184 new cases per year.

But that growth has leveled off in the last eight months and dropped by more than 500 people in the last two months, the agency said. The total number of deportation order absconders is now placed at 632,189.

http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/150279.html