Thread: Immigration sweep yields 761 arrests

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
29 minutes ago



SANTA ANA, Calif. - Federal officials said Tuesday they arrested more than 750 illegal immigrants over the past week in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in what they described as one of the biggest such sweeps in U.S. history.

The weeklong series of raids in the five-county region targeted illegal immigrants who had previously been deported for crimes or had ignored final deportation orders.

The raids netted 338 illegal immigrants who were arrested at their homes and apartments and 423 who were identified in area jails since Jan. 17. Those already jailed will be transferred to federal custody when they finish serving their state sentences, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The sweep netted illegal immigrants from 14 countries in all, including Mexico, Honduras, Ukraine, India, Japan, Poland and Trinidad.

Of the 761 people arrested, more than 450 have already been deported, Kice said

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070123/ap_ ... tion_raids

Chicago and Elvira should be their next stop.

The Elvira fiasco could have easily been taken care of or defused by Agents calmly walking in the that church and quietly taking her into custody and putting her and her son on a plane.

She and her son just would not have become the poster children for people who want to show how terrible we are when we demand that our laws be enforced.

For some strange reason people who break immigration law are different than those who steal cars because we would not for a second stop the prosecution of a thief because they a. used a church for sanctuary and b. used a child as leverage to avoid being arrested and punished.

Just a teeny tiny double standard going on there, aided by (I have no doubt) factions of our administration.

This is going down in LA, wow at least they are starting to catch them. Every little bit helps.

Right now I'm waiting for the Arnolito Greenpeace Schwartzengomez vehement condemnation.

Even though, if you throw a rock in L.A. county you'll be sued by an illegal alien.
Whether you hit anyone or not.

Oh my gosh! I'm in shock, major shock! In the LA area? This is really something. I'm going to watch out for more coverage of this. They are trying to clean up the gang mess, maybe has something to do with that? I notice this article is from Santa Ana, that city has been a sanctuary city for decades, been there many times. Heck, even lived there years ago. Wow, double wow!

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/topstorie ... topstories

761 arrested in immigration sweep
1/23/2007, 4:20 p.m. CT
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
The Associated Press


SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A sleepy-eyed man with a hooded sweat shirt and a plastic lunch pail scurried back into his apartment complex at the sight of a dozen immigration agents outside. He had no reason to worry: They were after his neighbor.

Three officers crept toward the building, and one banged on the door of Apt. A. After a tense minute in the darkness before dawn, the door cracked open and they had their first arrest — a 29-year-old immigrant with a driving-under-the-influence conviction.

It was a scene repeated across Southern California over the past week in what officials said was one of the biggest sweeps in U.S. history of illegal immigrants who have criminal records or have ignored deportation orders.

By Tuesday, when federal officials announced the results of the sweep, 761 illegal immigrants have been taken into custody: 338 at their homes in five Los Angeles-area counties, and 423 at county jails, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Associated Press rode along on the first day of the secret sweeps, which began Jan. 17. Those arrested came from 14 countries, among them Mexico, Honduras, Ukraine, India, Japan, Poland and Trinidad. Of those arrested, more than 450 had already been deported by Tuesday, Kice said.

The raids were a major push within Operation Return to Sender, part of a crackdown that has resulted in 13,000 arrests nationwide since June. Immigration officials have also identified 3,000 inmates in state and local jails who will be deported once they serve their sentences.

Officials estimate 600,000 illegal immigrants who have ignored federal deportation orders are still at large.

"Foreign nationals who flout our laws and commit crimes against our citizens should be on notice that there are consequences," said ICE chief Julie L. Myers. "ICE will use all of the tools at its disposal to find you and send you home."

For agents in Orange County, that meant gathering at 4 a.m. in a chilly parking lot for a pep talk before fanning out at houses in Santa Ana and Anaheim on the sweep's first day.

After their success at Apt. A, the agents sped off to the suspected address of a convicted rapist.

Three officers pounded on the door of a two-story, stucco house in a working-class neighborhood. Another pointed his flashlight at a woman wrapped in a blue bathrobe peering through an open downstairs window.

"Open the door, please. We're with the immigration police and we have to talk," he said in Spanish.

Soon the woman was sitting at the kitchen table as officers with flashlights herded seven men into the living room. Because none had identification, the officers could not identify their target.

Jim Hayes, director of the Los Angeles field office of ICE, decided to book them all. "We're going to make sure they're not wanted for any more serious crimes," he said.

Six of the men were frisked, then taken in handcuffs to a van. The seventh man was a legal immigrant who owns the house; he told officers he didn't know any of the men — he just rented to them.

By that point it was 6 a.m., and the chances of surprising suspects were waning with the light. Hayes decided to take the van, loaded with the seven men, back to a processing center in downtown Santa Ana.

There, two dozen men and one woman brought in from other raids sat on wooden benches, clutching paper bags filled with their belongings. Officers wound through the room interviewing them, taking their fingerprints and mug shots and helping them fill out forms.

Adan Garcia, a 29-year-old dishwasher with a wife and two young boys in Honduras, said he won't be back in the United States — at least not illegally.

"I came to this country to work, not harm anyone, and not expecting what happened this morning at 5 a.m.," said Garcia, who was taken into custody at the second house. "It wasn't supposed to be this way."

Practically the same article but a few more paragraphs, or maybe I cut the previous one short, oh well. Title is different though.
You watch, there's going to be a lot of buzz about this, a lot!


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-01 ... d-homepage

SoCal immigration raid one of largest in U.S.
(begins like the previous post)

By Monday, ICE learned that all six men arrested at the second house were illegal immigrants, four with prior criminal records.

The rapist they were after had had moved out a week before and is still at large.

"Just because we didn't get him that day doesn't mean we won't get him," said Kice, the ICE spokeswoman. "This does not mean the search is over."

I heard about this on Foxs News. This is great news! I believe this is due to all the pressure Alipac, other organizations and ordinary Americans have put on the government in reference to this issue. Pressure needs to remain full force, as soon as we let up, they are going to go back to ignoring us. I hope this is not the government doing what it always does, giving us bit and pieces but never intending to fully carry through. Well ,if we keep the pressure on, they will have no choice but to go forward no matter what their intentions are.

Hopefully these new raids and arrests, will make other illegal aliens scared and run back to where ever they come from.