ICE nets more than 1,600 immigration fugitives in fiscal year

By ANABELLE GARAY Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5351445.html

DALLAS — Federal agents who track down fugitive illegal immigrants arrested more than 30,000 people nationally in fiscal year 2007, nearly double the previous year, officials said Tuesday.

The number of arrests more than doubled to 1,635 in North Texas and Oklahoma, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. There were 30,400 arrests nationally in fiscal 2007, which ended Sept. 30, compared to 15,462 last year, ICE said.

Agents on the fugitive operations teams focus on finding people who haven't appeared for immigration hearings, or who stayed in the country after being ordered to leave by an immigration judge.

Out of the 1,635 arrested by the Dallas and Oklahoma City teams in fiscal 2007, 699 were fugitives and 168 had criminal convictions. The majority have since been removed to their countries of origin, ICE said in a release. There were 606 arrests regionally last year.

Better coordination and information sharing with state and local law enforcement helped bolster arrests of immigration fugitives, ICE said.

The agency also credited additional teams deployed around the country for the increased arrests. ICE now has 75 fugitive operations teams, up from 52 in fiscal year 2006.

Two of the teams are based in Dallas and one in Oklahoma City, said ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok.

ICE also attributes the boost in arrests to its Fugitive Operations Support Center in Vermont. The center helps gather and analyze information on fugitive cases across the country.

Since opening last year, it has passed on more than 150,000 leads to ICE agents, the agency said.

ICE officials said the backlog of fugitives was down by 38,000 to 595,000 for the new fiscal year.