Thread: NEW IMMIGRATION MAKES 175 ARRESTS IN ORANGE CO, CA

Friday, June 22, 2007

New immigration team makes 175 O.C. arrests

Operation this week marks start of team focused on tracking down illegal immigrants who evade court orders to leave.

By AMY TAXIN

The Orange County Register

SANTA ANA – Immigration agents arrested 175 people this week in Orange County in an operation aimed at tracking down illegal immigrants who skirt court orders to leave the country.

Revealed to the public today, it was the first action taken by a new seven-member Orange County fugitive operations team whose primary goal is to find and arrest undocumented immigrants who fail to leave when told or re-enter the country illegally after they were removed by authorities.

In the hours before dawn Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wearing T-shirts over bulletproof vests huddled in a parking lot in downtown Santa Ana. An agent pulled out a list of "targets" the team would try to find – a convicted rapist, a woman convicted of child cruelty and a man who was issued a bench warrant after failing to pay his traffic tickets.

"By deploying this team in Orange County, we can continue to enhance the public safety in Orange County," said Jim Hayes, ICE field office director for greater Los Angeles.

This week's operation drew mixed reactions in Santa Ana's densely packed neighborhoods. Residents welcomed ICE's efforts to rid the area of criminals but shuddered when their loved ones – many without criminal records – were arrested in the process.

Of the 175 arrests in 13 cities across Orange County, 27 people had criminal records and 26 were people who had ignored deportation orders, according to ICE.

Rocio Martinez said her husband was arrested by ICE agents Monday, leaving her alone to care for her two young children in Santa Ana. He was convicted a few years ago of making and using fake identification but had no outstanding deportation order, according to ICE.

"Why don't they take the drug dealers and the thieves?" Martinez said. "We work and I pay taxes and I don't know why people who do bad things in this country and mock the justice system can get away with it."

The arrests are part of a nationwide ICE initiative dubbed "Operation Cross Check," which aims to reduce the number of people who fail to heed court orders to deport. Hayes said the number of people skirting their deportation orders fell for the first time ever in the past eight months, to 632,189. For three years, the population grew by more than 5,000 a month.

ICE now has five fugitive operations teams in the greater Los Angeles area, including the one in Orange County.

According to statistics from the Executive Office for Immigration Review – which oversees the country's immigration courts – judges issued deportation orders for 220,057 immigrants during the past fiscal year. About four times out of 10, immigrants failed to attend court when a judge ruled on their cases, according to EOIR.


Contact the writer: 714-704-3777 or ataxin@ocregister.com

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/ho ... 741263.php

Hello ICE!! fugitive illegal Elvira Arellano is hiding in a Chicago church! She has been deported, came back, used a phony SS number and defied a 2nd deprtation order .. Go get her!

drop in the bucket. and a transparent attempt to look tough, which will end if this amnesty is passed.

600,000 fugitive absconders - 175 of them = 599,825 to go.

this is just more show by Boosh to get his treasured amnesty.

Boosh and The Skull can go pound sand.