posted on January 23, 2007 04:48:07 PM new
FOXNEWS.COM HOME >
[b]U.S.
Immigration Sweep Yields 761 Arrests[/b]
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Federal officials said Tuesday they arrested more than 750 illegal immigrants over the past week in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in what they described as one of the biggest such sweeps in U.S. history.
The weeklong series of raids in the five-county region targeted illegal immigrants who had previously been deported for crimes or had ignored final deportation orders.
The raids netted 338 illegal immigrants who were arrested at their homes and apartments and 423 who were identified in area jails since Jan. 17. Those already jailed will be transferred to federal custody when they finish serving their state sentences, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The sweep netted illegal immigrants from 14 countries in all, including Mexico, Honduras, Ukraine, India, Japan, Poland and Trinidad.
Of the 761 people arrested, more than 450 have already been deported, Kice said.
The raids were a major push within Operation Return to Sender, a crackdown that has resulted in 13,192 arrests nationwide since late May.
Immigration officials have also identified 3,000 inmates in state and local jails who will be deported.
The operation targets those illegal immigrants who go into hiding after skipping their deportation proceedings and criminals who have re-entered the United States after being previously deported for crimes committed in this country.
Officials estimate 600,000 illegal immigrants who have ignored deportation orders are still at large, Kice said.
The Associated Press rode along for the first day of sweeps in Orange County last week.
Immigration officers gathered at 4 a.m. in a chilly parking lot for a pep talk, then fanned out to houses in Anaheim and Santa Ana.
At the first stop, an apartment complex, a half-dozen agents arrested a 29-year-old illegal immigrant wanted for a driving-under-the-influence conviction. Kice said that man is now helping them find his brother, a registered sex offender.
At the second stop, the agents were looking for a convicted rapist and immigration fugitive. Instead, they arrested six men who could not provide legal papers _ and later learned that all six were illegal and four had criminal records.
The rapist they sought had moved out the week before, Kice said.
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And these are the illegals that SOME want to allow to REMAIN here in our country?
We deport...they return. We appear to be doing double duty...at TWICE the cost to taxpayers.
Imo, when they are first apprehended....they should be JAILED and NOT released to come back on their own credibility for their hearings. They HAVE NONE.
posted on January 24, 2007 02:47:07 AM new
Taken from todays Las Vegas Sun. com
January 23, 2007
Unlucky Day Laborers Arrested in Md.
By BEN NUCKOLS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BALTIMORE (AP) -
Twenty-four day laborers in the country illegally were arrested Tuesday when they asked for work from federal immigration agents who had gathered in a parking lot after an unsuccessful undercover operation, authorities said.
The agents had regrouped at a 7-Eleven parking lot after an a search for illegal immigrants who had been ordered to leave the country, said Marc Raimondi, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency spokesman.
The day laborers admitted they were in the country illegally after they asked the ICE agents whether they needed workers and the agents responded by asking them, in Spanish, where they were from, Raimondi said.
"Today's operation was not planned, but nevertheless, when we encounter immigration status violators, our mandate is to enforce the law," he said.
Among those arrested were six who had criminal records in the United States;
eight who had been deported or ushered to the border to leave the country voluntarily, only to return;
and one who had been caught six times trying to enter the country from Mexico, according to ICE.
Ten of those arrested were from Honduras; eight were from Mexico; five were from El Salvador; and one was from Peru.
Hispanic advocates condemned the arrests, accusing ICE of targeting only day laborers who appeared to be of Latino descent. CASA of Maryland said it interviewed non-Hispanic day laborers who told the organization the ICE agents ignored them.
"They focused on people who look like me," said Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA. "We believe that is unacceptable. It is discrimination."
ICE agents acted in accordance with federal immigration laws, Raimondi said.
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'they focused on people who look like me'. LOL LOL LOL
Always have to play that race card. How about they pretty much were guaranteed since you were standing on the street in groups...that you were illegals.
We sure don't see groups of legal citizens standing on the street corners in groups looking for work. They actually APPLY for jobs with companies.
