theepochtimes.com
By Jack Phillips
Epoch Times Staff
Created: September 28, 2011
Last Updated: November 30, -0001


An undocumented Guatemalan immigrant, chained for being charged as a criminal, prepares to board a deportation flight to Guatemala City, Guatemala at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport on June 24, 2011 in Mesa, Arizona. (John Moore/Getty Images)

During a weeklong operation that covered all 50 states and four territories, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 2,901 convicted illegal immigrants, the agency said on Wednesday.


ICE, in a press release, said that all of the individuals taken into custody had prior criminal records, 1,282 had several criminal convictions, and more than 1,600 were convicted felons.


Some were convicted of offenses such as attempted murder, manslaughter, robbery, and other charges. Forty-two were gang members and 151 were convicted sex offenders, ICE said.


“The results of this targeted enforcement operation underscore ICE’s ongoing commitment and focus on the arrest and removal of convicted criminal aliens and those that game our nation’s immigration system,” stated ICE Director John Morton in praise of the operation, which was dubbed “Cross Check.”

Cross Check follows several other operations that were conducted in prior years, which led to the arrest of more than 4,500 convicted illegal immigrants since 2009.

The Obama administration said it has made a priority of apprehending and deporting criminal aliens and egregious immigration law violators. This summer it announced it would not longer commit resources to deporting otherwise law abiding illegal immigrants.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/unit...rds-62166.html