ICE: Sweep catches 19 criminal illegal immigrants in RGV

September 28, 2011 9:36 PM
By Naxiely Lopez The Monitor

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they arrested 19 undocumented immigrants living in the Rio Grande Valley as part of a seven-day, nationwide operation targeting criminal immigrants.

The Cross-Check operation was the largest of its kind to date, according to an ICE news release, and is part of the Obama administration’s strategy of prioritizing the removal of criminal illegal immigrants.

Nationwide, in all 50 states and four territories, more than 1,900 officers and agents worked to round up about 2,900 people, officials said. Seventy-six arrests were made in South Texas. Of those, 32 had multiple convictions and eight were illegal re-entrants who had previously been removed from the country multiple times, ICE said.

Statewide, the crimes they are convicted of ranged from attempted murder to drug trafficking to sexual crimes against minors, the released stated.

Authorities did not disclose the identities of those arrested but did provide an example of one case from the Rio Grande Valley — a 36-year-old man from Mexico who was living in Rio Grande City. He had been convicted of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, alien smuggling and illegal re-entry.

The arrested were presented to U.S. attorneys for prosecution, including for illegal re-entry after deportation.

The Obama administration had promised in August that immigration authorities would start focusing their scarce resources on finding and deporting serious criminals, and largely leave alone immigrants whose only offense was crossing the border illegally.

Nationwide, everyone arrested during the sweep had at least one criminal conviction and more than half were convicted of at least one felony, including attempted murder, rape and kidnapping, ICE said. They will now face deportation.

ICE Director John Morton said Wednesday the roundup was the largest ICE effort to hunt down criminal illegal immigrants.

"This is what we should be doing; this is good law enforcement," Morton said. "It makes sense to be removing people who are committing crimes who are here illegally first and foremost."

There are still an estimated 1 million criminal illegal immigrants in the country, Morton said.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/articl ... l-ice.html