Last week’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation that netted 161 arrests in six Southern California counties was part of a nationwide “series of targeted enforcement operations” that netted hundreds more detentions across the country, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security chief said in a statement Monday.
ICE officers in the areas of Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, San Antonio and New York City arrested more than 680 people “who pose a threat to public safety, border security or the integrity of our nation’s immigration system,” DHS Secretary John F. Kelly said.
About 75 percent of those arrested in the multi-day operations were “criminal aliens” convicted of crimes that include homicide, sexual abuse, sexual assault of a minor, drug trafficking, assault, DUI and weapons charges, he said.
“ICE conducts these kind of targeted enforcement operations regularly and has for many years,” Kelly said. “The focus of these enforcement operations is consistent with the routine, targeted arrests carried out by ICE’s Fugitive Operations teams on a daily basis.”
He said President Donald Trump’s focus has been on “removing aliens who have violated our immigration laws, with a specific focus on those who pose a threat to public safety, have been charged with criminal offenses, have committed immigration violations or have been deported and re-entered the country illegally.”
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Trump has repeatedly vowed to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. An executive order he signed days after assuming office suggests that nearly all undocumented immigrants could be prioritized for deportation. That order, along with news of such arrests, has helped to spark fear and concern among many Latino and other immigrants who fear they or their loves ones could be deported.
Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of the individuals arrested by ICE agents last week in six Southern California counties have been deported back to their country, authorities said Monday.
Thirty-seven of the 161 individuals arrested in last week’s ICE operation “targeting criminal aliens, illegal re-entrants, and immigration fugitives” in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties have already been repatriated, according to ICE officials.
These 37 people were Mexican nationals who had outstanding orders of deportation or who had returned to the U.S. illegally after being deported, making them subject to immediate removal, officials said.
Those arrested who have not previously been through removal proceedings will be scheduled for a future hearing before an immigration judge, according to ICE officials.
Of the total arrested, 94 percent (151 people) had prior criminal convictions, according to an ICE statement on Monday. Of the 10 non-criminals taken into custody, half had final orders of removal or had been previously deported, ICE officials had said previously.
The arrests in Southern California, according to the federal agency, included:
• A previously deported aggravated felon from Honduras with prior convictions for drug trafficking, spousal battery, and petty theft.
• A Mexican national with a final order of removal with prior convictions for drug trafficking, a weapons violation, and spousal battery
• An Australian national with a conviction for lewd and lascivious acts with a child
“Last week’s enforcement operations were conducted in accordance with routine, daily targeted operations conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fugitive operations teams every day to arrest criminal aliens and other individuals who are in violation of our nation’s immigration laws,” ICE said in its L.A. statement.
The federal agency added that it “does not conduct sweeps, checkpoints or raids that target aliens indiscriminately.”
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