LOS ANGELES - (INT) - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested nearly 190 people in Southern California in a five-day operation that targeted “public safety threats,” including criminal foreign nationals, illegal re-entrants and immigration fugitives, authorities announced Thursday.

About 90 percent, 169 of the 188 people, arrested in the six-county enforcement operation that ended Wednesday had prior criminal convictions, the agency said. Among them were 15 people convicted of sex crimes, including a convicted rapist, a previously deported cocaine trafficker, and two people convicted of cruelty to a child.

There were 26 arrests in Riverside County and 21 in San Bernardino County.

“It’s a win for us and now we’ve taken these convicted criminals off the streets so they can’t re-offend, they can’t make more victims and ultimately, our goal is to remove them from the country,” David Marin, field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations in Los Angeles, said in an interview. “They weren’t people who just had traffic tickets or speeding violations.”

Arrests were made in the counties of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, Ventura and Santa Barbara.

While the vast majority of arrestees were from Mexico — 146 — they also came from countries, including Russia, Armenia, Thailand, El Salvador, Vietnam, Cambodia, Russia and Guatemala, according to an ICE statement.

Jennie Pasquarella, director of immigrants’ rights for the American Civil Liberties Union of California, said ICE arrests during the operation included a decades-long green card holder from El Monte who according to the man’s family, had a domestic violence-related conviction dating back to the early 90s.

“His daughter is active-duty military, his son-in-law is active duty military,” Pasquarella said. “He’s been a valued member of his family and community for decades and they seem to be going after people for a conviction that’s as old as 1992.”

The man, a construction worker whom she declined to name without permission from his family, had never had any previous contact with ICE officials, Pasquarella said. She said his green card had been renewed multiple times over the years and “the conviction has never been an issue” until now.

“This is part of their, I think, public relations strategy to say they’re going after people with certain convictions but of course it doesn’t tell the whole story of who these people are and the harm that is brought by targeting them and whether it’s really a sound choice,” Pasquarella said.

It was not known Thursday how many of those arrested in the operation were green card holders, who are subject to immigration laws if convicted of certain crimes, Marin said.

Under President Barack Obama’s administration, there were certain groups of people ICE could not arrest or target, he said. In the Trump administration, they are able to arrest anyone in violation of immigration law.

ICE’s enforcement priorities under Obama since 2014 included serious misdemeanors, such as domestic violence and driving under the influence, but did not necessarily include crimes such as theft or fraud unless they were sentenced to at least 90 days of custody for them.

This latest operation netted 43 people with narcotics offenses, 27 with domestic violence crimes, 30 with DUI convictions, 6 with assault offenses, 2 case of vehicle theft, and 3 cases of fraud, according to ICE.

At least eight people arrested now face federal prosecution for re-entry after deportation, which is a felony and is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, officials said in the statement.

Those who are not being criminally prosecuted will be processed for removal from the country. Meanwhile, those who have outstanding deportation orders, or who re-entered the U.S. illegally after being deported, can be immediately removed, officials said.

Under the Trump administration from January 20 through April 29, ICE has arrested more than 41,800 people across the country who are known or suspected of being in the country illegally, up 35 percent over the same period in 2016. Seventy-three percent of those arrested during that period this year are convicted criminals.

In the greater L.A. area, only about 10 percent of the total arrests in the region this year during that period, compared to 26 percent nationally, were of those who did not have a criminal conviction, according to the data. But that number did increase from 87 such arrests last year to 224 this year. (Source: Los Angeles Daily News and INT)

Story Date: May 31, 2017