ICE Arrests Dozens in San Diego During National Crackdown on Criminal Aliens

ICE Arrests Dozens in San Diego During National Crackdown on Criminal Aliens

POSTED BY CHRIS JENNEWEIN ONSEPTEMBER 1, 2020

https://timesofsandiego.com/wp-conte...st-640x360.jpgICE officers make an arrest during the nationwide crackdown. Courtesy ICE


Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers took dozens of people into custody in the San Diego area in recent weeks as part of a nationwide crackdown on criminal suspects and convicted felons in the country illegally.

Agency officials said Tuesday the operation, which took place between July 22 and Aug. 20, resulted in 46 arrests across San Diego County county out of more than 2,000 nationwide.

Among those jailed, according to the federal agency, were the following Mexican nationals, whose names were not released:

• A 30-year-old man who injured two ICE officers during a struggle that broke out as they arrested him in the city of San Diego on suspicion of unlawfully entering the United States following deportation. He will return to ICE custody upon completion of his criminal case and then be removed from the country again.
• A 32-year-old man who had been granted probation with a firearms restriction following his arrest on a sexual-battery charge in 2004. Eight years later, he was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, and in 2014 a U.S. immigration judge ordered his removal to Mexico. He was taken into custody in Oceanside during the recent sweep and deported on Sunday.
• A 64-year-old man arrested in Encinitas. The suspect has four prior criminal convictions for drug and domestic-violence offenses. In 2001, a judge ordered him in absentia to be removed to Mexico. He will remain in ICE custody pending deportation.
• A 43-year-old woman taken into custody in Vista. The suspect has an extensive criminal record dating back to 1997 and was deported in 2002. In 2008, she was placed in a drug-treatment program after being arrested in Chula Vista on a parole violation. She was jailed again seven months ago in San Diego on suspicion of child cruelty, being a felon in possession of a gun, and possession of a control substance and drug paraphernalia. Upon completion of her federal criminal case, she will be transferred to ICE custody and deported.

“Operations like this reflect the vital work officers do every day to protect the our communities, while upholding public safety and protecting the integrity of our U.S. immigration laws,” said Greg Archambeault, director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Diego.

https://timesofsandiego.com/crime/20...iminal-aliens/

ICE arrests 46 in San Diego County over month-long operation

https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/d...%2F6334283.jpg[Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers make an arrest on Aug. 11 in northern Virginia as part of a nationwide operation.
(Amanda Mason/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)


The arrests were part of a nationwide effort by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Advocates condemned the agency’s presence in immigrant communities during the pandemic

By KATE MORRISSEY
SEP. 1, 2020 6:04 PM


Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested 46 people around San Diego County over a month-long operation that took place across the country.

The agency said Tuesday that the operation, which ran from mid-July until mid-August, targeted people who had been arrested for, charged with or convicted of crimes that involve harming other people. According to statistics published by the agency, those crimes nationwide included assault, domestic violence and homicide as well as hit and run, robbery and identity theft.

ICE said its officers arrested people in several cities around the county — San Diego, San Marcos, Escondido, Vista, National City, Oceanside, El Cajon and Encinitas.

Some of those arrested were charged with illegal reentry and transferred to federal criminal custody, ICE said. Some were sent to detention centers to wait for either immigration court cases or deportations, and others have already been deported.

It was not clear whether any of the 46 apprehensions were “collateral arrests,” meaning they were people who happened to be around when ICE officers showed up looking for their targets. ICE did not answer a question about this from the Union-Tribune.

The operation in San Diego was smaller than some in previous years in which more than 100 people were arrested over a matter of days.

The operation’s impact in other areas was larger — more than 300 people were arrested by ICE in the past month in the Los Angeles area, for example.
Immigrant-rights advocates are concerned that ICE is conducting such enforcement efforts during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.


ICE said that its officers used equipment to protect themselves as well as those they apprehended from potential transmission of the novel coronavirus.

But the stress and fear of seeing immigration enforcement happening in the community compounds the anxiety that people are living through during the pandemic, said Lilian Serrano, chair of the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium.

“Knowing that ICE has not really changed the way they operate, not even during this pandemic, has created an increase of fear,” Serrano said.
After they’re arrested and detained, immigrants may end up in facilities that have already struggled to contain outbreaks of COVID-19. Otay Mesa Detention Center, the only immigration detention facility in San Diego County, had a large outbreak beginning in April.

Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union sued to get medically vulnerable detainees out before they became infected. One man who had increased risk because of diabetes ended up dying in custody after he got COVID-19 at Otay Mesa Detention Center.

“ICE’s continued arrests in our community are further proof that the agency cannot be left to its own devices during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Monika Lancargia, an attorney with the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. “With every newly arrested individual, ICE risks unnecessary spread of the virus, including in its detention centers, which are dangerous congregate environments that imperil the safety of detained persons, staff, and the community at large every day. We continue to urge ICE to reduce the number of people subject to detention by releasing more individuals from its jails and by ceasing needless operations in our community.”

The federal government has asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that the people who needed to be released from the facility already have been. But the ACLU is pushing for the lawsuit to continue in part because of newly detained people arriving at the facility.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...ests-san-diego