March 29, 2024
ICE details Southland sweep, snares previously convicted criminals
LOS ANGELES - (INT) - It turns out that 88 percent of those arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a 5-day operation last week in Southern California were convicted criminals.

Of those arrested, 195 were either convicted criminals, had been issued a final order of removal and failed to leave the United States, or had been previously removed but returned illegally.

ICE also served 122 notices of inspection (NOIs) to businesses in the Los Angeles area. Such a notice alerts business owners that ICE is going to audit their hiring records to determine whether or not they are in compliance with the law.

“Because sanctuary jurisdictions like Los Angeles prevent ICE from arresting criminal aliens in the secure confines of a jail, our officers are forced to conduct at-large arrests in the community, putting officers, the general public and the aliens at greater risk and increasing the incidents of collateral arrests,” said ICE Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan. “Fewer jail arrests mean more arrests on the street, and that also requires more resources, which is why we are forced to send additional resources to those areas to meet operational needs and officer safety,” Homan said.

Los Angeles does not officially consider itself a sanctuary city, but that may soon change. The City Council is discussing a resolution that would label L.A. a “city of sanctuary,” though the proposal currently does not contain any substantive changes to city policies.

ICE’s Los Angeles-area fugitive operations teams conduct enforcement operations across Southern California, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties.

Since President Donald Trump took office, the number of people apprehended at the border dropped, but arrests of immigrants inside the country surged, according to end-of-year immigration enforcement numbers released in December by the Department of Homeland Security.


Story Date: February 23, 2018
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