http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/06 ... _27_07.txt

NORTH COUNTY -- Immigration agents arrested at least six illegal immigrants Wednesday in a daylong operation involving about a dozen officers in North County and San Diego.

The illegal immigrants targeted by the agents were people who had been ordered deported by an immigration judge. Some of them had criminal records, including robbery, driving under the influence of alcohol and other violations, officials said.

Two of them were arrested in Escondido. One of them was Jose Lopez Diaz, a 20-year-old man who arrived from Honduras five years ago. Lopez Diaz said he tried to stay out of trouble while he waited for the federal government to grant an amnesty.


"I don't want to go," he said with tears streaming from his eyes while sitting handcuffed in a van. "My parents are here. My siblings are here."

Immigration agents at the scene said Lopez Diaz had been ordered deported in 2003. He was recently caught driving without a licence at a police checkpoint and gave false information to police, agents said.

Agency officials said that similar efforts nationwide, through a program called Operation Return to Sender, netted more than 17,817 fugitive illegal immigrants last year. Under the program, more than 650 illegal immigrants have been arrested in San Diego County since October, said Lauren Mack spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE.

There are about 632,000 fugitive illegal immigrants nationwide, including those who have committed crimes or have been ordered deported, according to officials with the agency.

Critics say the program is a symptom of the nation's broken immigration system. They say the operations are inhumane and break up families, whose only crime may be entering the country illegally.

Tina Jillings, a community activist, said she watched two people being arrested by immigration agents carrying weapons last week, while children in the Vista home cried.

"I must be honest and say that I have never seen anything like this except on television," she said. "And watching this activity unfold live, I must admit is traumatizing. One can only imagine what the families are going through because of this horrible experience."

Immigration agents arrested three family members early last Thursday who are suspected of selling counterfeit immigration documents, Mack said. She said last week's arrests were the result of a months-long investigation not connected with Operation Return to Sender.

Escondido Councilwoman Marie Waldron said she supports the immigration operations targeting wanted immigrants. Waldron, who also is chairwoman of an anti-illegal immigration group called Californians Against Illegal Immigration, said the argument that enforcement efforts break up families is a "smoke screen."

"The reality is that we are a nation of laws and these laws should be enforced," Waldron said. "I support ICE 100 percent and understand that some groups have personal agendas and twist the interpretation of our laws to suit their agenda."

Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said their efforts had succeeded in reducing the number of fugitive illegal immigrants. Those efforts include increasing the number of agents tasked with arresting wanted illegal immigrants, increasing bed space in detention centers and improving intelligence gathering methods, officials said.

"ICE has been working aggressively to improve the systems that help us identify, target and remove fugitive aliens from the United States," said Julie Myers, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, in a written statement.

According to the agency, the number of wanted illegal immigrants was growing by an average of 5,682 a month from September 2003 to September 2006. The total number of fugitive illegal immigrants has dropped by more than 500 names in the last two months, officials announced last week.

The number of Fugitive Operations Teams, the officers dedicated to locating and arresting wanted illegal immigrants, increased from 18 in 2005 to 61 now working, including two teams in San Diego County.

Last year, the agency opened its Fugitive Operation Support Center in Vermont to improve intelligence on wanted individuals and provide assistance the teams, according to the agency.

The agency also created the Detention Enforcement and Processing Offenders by Remote Technology last year to help identify illegal immigrant inmates in federal prisons. The program allows immigration officials deport illegal immigrants soon after they are released from prison.