Thread: ICE arrest nearly 300 foreigners with criminal records, CA.

Immigration sweep nets 69 in San Diego County

Friday, December 11, 2009 at 5:36 p.m.
ASSOCIATED PRESS AND UNION-TRIBUNE

SAN DIEGO - Immigration agents arrested 280 people in California - a fourth of them in San Diego County - in their biggest push yet to round up suspected illegal immigrants with criminal records in local communities, authorities said Friday.

More than 400 agents and local law enforcement officers fanned out across the state in the three-day search led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“These are not people who we want walking our streets,â€

Happened to see a Department of Homeland Security vehicle driving in Poway (which is in San Diego Co.) today. So they were probably involved in this.

California sweep targets illegal immigrants with criminal records

Federal agents arrested almost 300 people in California Thursday, as part of a new focus on targeting illegal immigrants with criminal records. Most of those arrested had been convicted of serious or violent crimes, officials said.

By Daniel B. Wood Staff writer / December 11, 2009

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) appears to have a new enforcement priority: undocumented foreign nationals with criminal records. In what is reportedly the largest such operation ever, the ICE arrested 286 immigrants with criminal records in a three-day sweep in California that ended Thursday night.

More sweeps seem likely in border states, as part of an increased focus by the Department of Homeland Security on targeting undocumented immigrants with serious criminal records.

“This is not so much a shift in tactics but an increased emphasis on the elimination of criminal aliens, making it clear on both sides of the border that that is our highest priority,â€

U.S. immigration cracks down on foreign fugitives

Dec 11, 6:22 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Federal agents in California arrested 280 foreigners with criminal records, most for serious offenses, in their largest such crackdown to date, U.S. immigration officials said on Friday.

More than 100 of those rounded up in a three-day sweep that ended late Thursday have since been expelled from the United States, and most of the rest face immediate deportation proceedings.

The bulk of the individuals had prior convictions for crimes such as rape and other sex offenses, armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.

"These are not people we want walking our streets," Assistant Homeland Security Secretary John Morton said at a news conference in Los Angeles.

He touted the statewide sweep as the biggest such operation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

But the latest arrests represent a fraction of the 136,000 individuals expelled during the past year under stepped-up U.S. efforts to find and remove serious criminal offenders who are fugitives from deportation.

ICE estimates that 560,000 "fugitive aliens" -- a mix of people wanted for deportation who have criminal records and some who do not -- are still at large in this country.

Officials could not say how many such fugitives remained in the country after serving time in U.S. prisons. But a breakdown of cases tallied in this week's sweep suggests the numbers are high.

The lion's share, 217, had managed to avoid expulsion after their incarceration, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.

Some escaped detection because they served time in state and local jails before "we had the programs to identify those cases and ensure follow-up enforcement action," Kice said.

Others were free from custody during their prior deportation proceedings and slipped away. she said.

Over 60 of those arrested this week were previously deported but snuck back into the United States. At least 17 of those face further federal prosecution for reentering the country illegally, an offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison, ICE officials said.

Most of those arrested this week are from Mexico or Central America, but 30 different nations in all were represented, including countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091211/ts_ ... on_arrests

Nearly 300 deported in major California operation

Dec 11, 5:48 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Nearly 300 foreign nationals with criminal records have been deported from the United States or face removal after a three-day immigration enforcement operation, officials said Friday.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement hailed the 286 arrests as the "biggest operation targeting at large criminal aliens" it has ever carried out, involving more than 400 agents and officers from ICE, the US Marshals Service, as well as state and local agencies.

Those arrested -- 257 men and 29 women -- came from more than 30 countries in Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Most -- 207 -- were Mexican nationals, followed by 19 from El Salvador, 10 from Guatemala and seven from India, an ICE spokeswoman told AFP. There were only between one and three nationals from the other countries.

At least 100 of the criminal immigrants have already been removed from the United States. More than 80 percent of them had prior convictions for rape, armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and other serious crimes.

The group also included 30 convicted sex offenders, including child molesters.

"Legal immigration is an important part of our country's history and the American dream exists for many immigrants," Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary and ICE chief John Morton said in a statement.

"However, that dream involves playing by the rules and those who break our criminal laws will be removed from the country. Sadly, many of the people victimized by aliens who commit crimes are other members of the immigrant community, who are following the rules."

The United States is home to around 12 million illegal immigrants, most of them workers who pay taxes after obtaining false identification for work as cleaners, cooks and construction workers.

At least 17 of those arrested during the enforcement operation will face further federal prosecution because they re-entered the country illegally after a formal deportation. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison.

The immigrants came from US neighbors Mexico and Canada as well as Bolivia, Britain, Cambodia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, El Salvador, Fiji, France, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, the Philippines, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vietnam.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091211/ts ... 1211224915

December 11, 2009 10:44 AM

11 from O.C. arrested in immigration sweep

BY CINDY CARCAMO
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The three-day enforcement surge, which ended late Thursday, was described as the largest operation of its kind in the agency's history.

More than 80 percent of those taken into custody had prior convictions for serious or violent crimes, such as rape by force, armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon, officials said. The operation netted 96 individuals in the greater Los Angeles-area, including the 11 in Orange County.

"These are not the kinds of people we want walking in our streets," Morton said.

The special operation was spearheaded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Fugitive Operations Program, which is responsible for finding those who are in the country illegally and avoiding deportation orders. Their priority is to arrest those with criminal records

The operation involved more than 400 agents and officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Marshals Service, as well as several other state and local agencies.

One of those arrested was a Salvadoran national with an outstanding deportation order. The 53-year-old man was convicted in 1990 for lewd and lascivious acts with a child, immigration officials reported. Officials arrested him Tuesday in Buena Park after he failed to leave the country in 2004 when he was granted voluntary departure. He is now in custody pending removal to El Salvador, officials said.

Immigration officials said they could not release his name because of the Department of Homeland Security's privacy policy.

Also arrested were 30 convicted sex offenders, many whose crimes involved sexual assaults on children, officials said. Of those arrested, at least 100 have already been removed from the country.

Of those arrested, 30 are described as sex offenders, seven as suspected gang members and 17 with prior federal prosecutions.

Northern California accounted for the largest number of arrests during the operation, with a total of 119. San Diego and Imperial counties collectively had 71 arrests.

The arrestees, 257 men and 29 women, represent more than 30 different countries, including those in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

At least 17 of those arrested during the sweep will face further federal prosecution for reentering the country illegally after a formal deportation, immigration officials said. A conviction for felony re-entry carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Foreign nationals detained during the operation who are not being criminally prosecuted will be processed administratively for removal from the United States, immigration officials said. Those who have outstanding orders of deportation, or who returned to the U.S. illegally after being deported, are subject to immediate removal from the country.

The remaining people who are in federal custody await a hearing before an immigration judge, or pending travel arrangements for removal, immigration officials said.

Agency officials have long said they have focused on arresting and deporting people with criminal convictions who ignored deportation orders.

However, immigrant rights activists had accused the agency of not doing what they claimed. The issue came to a head after the Migration Policy Institute highlighted the agency's data, which showed that most of those arrested had no criminal records.

The Washington, D.C.-based institute, a nonprofit think tank that studies the movement of people worldwide, found that 73 percent of the nearly 97,000 people arrested by fugitive operations teams from the program's inception in 2003 to early 2008 had no criminal records.

This week’s operation fell in line with what Morton promised in the fall.

In a press conference in August, Morton touted what he called a more efficient strategy to target those in the country illegally. At that meeting, he emphasized the agency’s new focus, on going after the worst criminal offenders who are in the country illegally.

The agency’s statistics reflect a shift in the new administration's focus, compared with the previous three years.

For instance, three years ago, only 22 percent of those arrested by fugitive operations agents in the Southern California area had criminal records.

During this fiscal year, more than 50 percent of the 3,039 arrests in the same area had a criminal history.

Beefed-up manpower, stronger partnerships with local law enforcement, and a stronger directive from the top to focus on those with criminal backgrounds who are in the country illegally have led to the change, said Robert Naranjo, assistant field office director, in an interview last month. He helps lead the agency's Los Angeles Office of Detention and Removal Operations.

Naranjo, whose teams focus on finding those who are in the country illegally and have standing deportation orders, had said agents will continue to arrest those in the country illegally when they run across them during operations.

That may explain why six suspected illegal immigrants without prior criminal records were arrested during this week’s sweep.

In Orange County two fugitive operation teams were deployed in 2007 – one in Santa Ana and another in Laguna Niguel – dedicated to tracking down people who have ignored orders by an immigration judge to be deported. That's a departure from 2003, when there were no teams in the county. Instead, local operations were run out of Los Angeles.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/official ... ested.html

The San Diego Union Tribune now lets you post a live link with your comment.
You can direct people to ALIPAC that way.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009 ... l-records/

This is simply window dressing to patch an otherwise larger problem of illegal immigration. An illegal immigrant is still a criminal, whats the difference? they are picking up the worst of the worst?

Since when is being here illegality, not a crime?

Window dressing. Its a step in the right direction at least and good job on the ICE agents part.

Added an article from above to the Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-4770--0-0.html

Originally Posted by cclarkkent

This is simply window dressing .

I'm afraid you're right.