Department of Homeland Security is reporting the largest enforcement surge operation of its kind ever carried out in Arizona

Obama’s Arizona criminal alien dragnet politically motivated, say critics

By Jim Kouri
Tuesday, August 17, 2010

What is being viewed by many as an effort to stem the tide of citizen complaints about President Barack Obama’s attacks on Arizona and its immigration enforcement efforts, the Department of Homeland Security is reporting the largest enforcement surge operation of its kind ever carried out in Arizona.

More than 60 convicted criminal aliens and immigration fugitives have been arrested following a three-day targeted enforcement operation in Arizona, according to Homeland Security Department officials.
During the operation, which concluded last Wednesday night, Immigration & Customs Enforcement officers located and arrested 55 aliens with prior criminal convictions. In addition, 16 of the individuals ICE officers took into custody were immigration fugitives, aliens with outstanding orders of deportation who had failed to leave the country. Of those arrested during the enforcement action, at least 25 had already been removed from the United States.

At a news conference in Arizona Thursday, ICE Director John Morton announced the results of the enforcement action, which involved more than 60 ICE agents and officers, as well as personnel from the U.S. Marshals Service. Those officers fanned out across the state making arrests in Phoenix, Tucson, Sedona , Mesa, Tempe and Prescott.

“These are not people we want to see walking the streets here in Phoenix or in any other community in Arizona,â€