Posted on 03/15/2006 8:20:49 PM PST by Calpernia
ICE ARRESTS 375 GANG MEMBERS & ASSOCIATES IN TWO-WEEK ENFORCEMENT ACTION
Action is latest under Operation Community Shield, which has yielded 2,388 gang arrests in first year
 WASHINGTON, D.C. - During a two-week enforcement action that culminated yesterday, federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 375 gang members and associates in 23 states in a joint effort with law enforcement agencies nationwide. The arrests are the latest under the auspices of “Operation Community Shield,” a comprehensive initiative launched by ICE roughly one year ago to disrupt and dismantle transnational, violent street gangs. Operation Community Shield represents the first time the federal government has used immigration and customs authorities in a combined, national campaign against criminal street gangs in the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the results at a press conference today with ICE Assistant Secretary Julie Myers; Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Emilio Gonzalez; Assistant Director of Field Operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Michael Bouchard, First Assistant Chief of the Dallas Police Department David O'Neal Brown, and Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division Deborah Pierce.
In the past year, ICE has conducted several targeted enforcement actions under Operation Community Shield, including the latest one. In total, these efforts have resulted in the arrest of 2,388 members of 239 different gangs and the seizure of 117 firearms. Fifty-one of those arrested were gang leaders. Roughly 922 of those arrested were from the street gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). Those arrested under Operation Community Shield are prosecuted criminally or removed from the United States through immigration proceedings. To date, 533 have been charged criminally, while 1,855 have been hit with administrative immigration charges.
In the latest enforcement action that began on Feb. 24, 2006, ICE teamed up with its law enforcement partners to arrest large numbers of gang members in Dallas (44), San Diego (41), Washington, D.C. (22), Miami (22), and Raleigh, N.C. (19). Gang members were also arrested in locations such as Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Des Moines, Iowa; and Springfield, Missouri. Those arrested included members of MS-13, Surenos, 18th Street Gang, Latin Kings, Bloods, Crips, Armenian Power, Street Thug Criminals, Brown Pride, Asian Dragon Family, Avenue Assassins, Spanish Gangster Disciples, Big Time Killers and Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos.
More than 260 of the 375 individuals arrested in the latest action have past criminal records, most of them violent. ICE agents arrested 73 of the individuals on new criminal charges ranging from drug and firearms violations to charges of re-entering the country after deportation. The rest have been accused of administrative immigration violations and placed into deportation proceedings. Some of those arrested include:
“The lawlessness that these violent gangs propagate presents a grave threat to public safety,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. “We are meeting their victimization of the innocent with hard-hitting enforcement actions that lead to criminal prosecutions and deportations. Operation Community Shield embodies the power behind law enforcement partnerships, at all levels, to share information and combat these intolerable criminal elements.”
“Transnational street gangs pose a growing public safety threat to urban and rural communities throughout the United States. Their violence, sophistication, and scope have reached intolerable levels,” said ICE Assistant Secretary Myers. “Operation Community Shield demonstrates how ICE is working with its law enforcement partners and leveraging its broad authorities to disrupt these criminal organizations on a national scale.”
Partnerships with law enforcement / Impact on violent crime:
Law enforcement partnerships at the local level are critical to the success of Operation Community Shield. Recent collaboration in Dallas was representative of joint operations nationwide. In Dallas, ICE received data from the Dallas Police Department about local violent gang members. ICE conducted further investigation to determine if any were subject to arrest for federal customs or immigration violations. After identifying targets subject to ICE authorities, ICE and Dallas police conducted a joint operation that netted 44 gang members.
First Assistant Chief of the Dallas Police Department David O'Neal Brown said, “Operation Community Shield has had a direct impact on violent crime in the Dallas area. Over the past year, the murder rate in the Dallas metropolitan area decreased roughly twenty percent compared to the year before. This is a successful program that the Dallas Police Department is proud to participate in.”
ICE has also worked with its partners at the federal level. In the recent action, ICE teamed with USCIS to identify 48 MS-13 members who had recently applied for immigration benefits by comparing its list of thousands of gang targets against the USCIS database of immigration benefit applicants. This effort led to the arrest of 4 MS-13 members and the placement of immigration detainers on 8 MS-13 members in custody.
“Operation Community Shield is a prime example of how USCIS and ICE have joined forces to identify and remove those who pose a threat to public safety,” said USCIS Director Emilio Gonzalez. “Just this past year, USCIS identified and referred more than 4,000 cases involving fraud to ICE. This joint anti-fraud and national security effort is a major priority for the Department of Homeland Security.”
ICE has also worked closely with its partners at the ATF and FBI. ICE has been coordinating street gang operations with the ATF's Violent Crime Impact Team (VCIT) initiative, which operates in 23 cities throughout the country to identify, arrest, and prosecute the most violent criminals in communities. The VCIT is especially focused on the reduction of gun-related violence often perpetrated by violent gangs. ICE has also been coordinating all its gang targets with the FBI and its MS-13 National Gang Task Force prior to arrest.
About Operation Community Shield:
Operation Community Shield was launched in February 2005 after a threat assessment by ICE field offices identified MS-13 as one of the largest and most violent street gangs in the country. The assessment found that most of these gang members were foreign-born; in the United States illegally; had prior criminal convictions; and/or were involved in crimes that made them subject to ICE's broad immigration and customs authorities.
ICE kicked off Operation Community Shield with an enforcement action that resulted in the arrest of more than 100 members of MS-13. In the months that followed, ICE agents nationwide joined ranks and continued targeting MS-13 members in their jurisdictions. In May 2005, ICE expanded Operation Community Shield to include all criminal street gangs and prison gangs with foreign-born members.
Since that time, ICE has been targeting all violent gang members nationwide by using its administrative immigration authorities to detain and remove illegal alien gang members from the country and by using its criminal authorities to arrest and prosecute gang members involved in criminal activities. Operation Community Shield Bullet Points Fact Sheet
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;)
You are fun to freep with. And smack me in the head when I need it :)
Yes, a few months ago National Review magazine said that although 11 million illegals is commonly cited - there may be as many as 20 million! It's absolutely frightening to me that we have NO idea of how many foreigners have actually invaded our country. Even more frightening is the fact that BOTH parties are exacerbating this natural disaster. Think about it: a sovereign nation is subject to an illegal foreign invasion that has cost us billions in prison incarceration, social welfare services, bankrupt school districts, curtailed hospital public emergency services, remedial and bi-lingual education, AND a threat to our national security with our utter failure to secure our borders against terrorism. Most objective observers would say this is nothing more than a death/suicidal wish! What do you think? Sometimes I think this very insanity has driven me insane!! (?)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1472612/posts?page=38#38
Impact from illegal alien labor:
- Costing health care, retirement funding, education and law enforcement, accruing at $30 billion per year.
- USA is foregoing $35 billion a year in income tax collections because of the number of jobs that are now off the books.
- Census Bureau estimates that 8.7 million people are illegally residing in the USA
- Urban Institute estimates a total of 9.3 million are illegally residing in the USA
- Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a total of 9.2 million are illegally residing in the USA
- The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) stated that the Bureau of Labor could have missed as many as 10% of illegal aliens, since illegal aliens avoid census questionnaires. The CIS suggests the total illegal population is at 10 million or higher (March 2004).
- Employers have incentive to hire undocumented workers off the books.
- Overseas labor markets have forced US employers to find innovative ways to capitalize on sources of cheaper labor to stay competitive.
- Employers place pressure on the government to ignore the flood of cheap labor.
- Services, ie but not limited to: public school enrollment, language proficiency programs, and building permits, that cater to illegal aliens have increased in areas that are considered gateways for immigration.
- The top nine states that account for 50% of illegal aliens are: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.
- Sole authority to govern immigration flow is placed on the federal government.
- Responsibility for providing support to legal and illegal immigrants rests with the state and local governments.
- Immigrants send home on average $1,400 to $1,500 per year through money transfers (also called Remittances).
- As per the World Bank in 2002, people sent $133 billion worldwide. Developing countries accounted for $88 billion of that.
- Remittances from the United States to Mexico have tripled to $13 billion between 1995 and 2003.
- As per the Pew Hispanic Center, 39% of surveyed Latino immigrants listed themselves as having legal status to opening bank accounts. This enables cash transfers through private money centers such as Western Union and Money Gram.
- HOWEVER, banks including Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo Bank began accepting matriculas, which are photographed identity cards for Mexicans living in the US.
- Matriculas are obtainable by any legal or illegal Mexican. Matriculas are widely obtainable through Mexican consulates across the USA.
- To date, around 2.5 million matriculas have been issued, and the number is growing.
- In major illegal alien gateway cities, the influx of immigrants has led to a housing boom unexplained by official population growth.
- In New Jersey, the three gateway towns are New Brunswick, Elizabeth, and Newark.
- Housing permits in these three towns shot up over six-fold, while the rest of the three counties only saw a three-fold increase.
- 80% of these permits were designated for multiple tenent dwellings.
- Official statistics state that illegal aliens in New Jersey have jumped 110% – an estimate that is inconsistent with the housing statistics. Local realtors' stats for multiple tenent housing and school enrollments suggest the number is higher.
- The major illegal alien gateway cities have experienced school enrollments much higher than projections.
- The decrease in the number of births in the past decade had led education administrators to expect decreasing school enrollments as a post echo boom trend.
- A higher immigration rate, however, has offset the impact of declining births.
- Enrollment stats for major illegal alien gateway city school districts that included: Queens, New York; Elizabeth, Newark and New Brunswick, New Jersey; and Wake County in North Carolina revealed explosive growth in immigrant students, far beyond numbers consistent with *legal* migration limits.
- NYC public school system is the largest in the nation, enrollment of 1.1 million students.
- Immigrant student enrollment for 1998-2001 was 103,000, with Queens accounting for the largest share, 37,000.
- Between 1990 and 2001, more than half of New York City’s school districts increased their enrollments 10% or more, driven by a high number of immigrant students.
- New York City Public Schools, 1999 to 2001: 102,867 immigrant students: Dominican Republic, China, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Ecuador, Colombia and Haiti.
Gee thats nice that just before congress wants to up immigration and visa limits the enforcers go to work to turn in a few pickups and pad the old account.
Lets see 375 illegals and only some 12 to 20 million more to go.
Count me in you corner.
The more I read about this amnesty crap the angrier I get.
Thanks for the info.
The third entry and they are on the fast track for Wells Fargo loans, Driver's Licenses, a ride with 27 others like them in a careening 1985 GMC cargo van, get to rebuild the Gulf Coast, rape twelve year old girls and generally totally ignore our laws. The fourth entry is into their new country.
/s
Very interesting and horrifying statistics but based on 8.7 million illegals! What if, as I suggested in another post, (and cited the source) the number is closer to 20 million? The tragic fact is that we've lost control of our own nation. This horrible reality hasn't yet fully resonated with the majority. It sort of reminds me of the frog put in a pot of water and the temperature is gradually increased - but by the time the water begins to boil it's already too late for the frog. I think we could confront any overt or imminent physical threat but this crisis has done us in! I doubt the disastrous trends can be reversed.
I believe you about 20 million. If you look at my post closer, I was citing known stats and contrasting them all in the data I found. I even clarified further in my post that not all illegals will stand up and be counted.
My numbers weren't based on one source.
Thank you and I must confess I read it in too cursory a manner the first time. Excellent post!
Sadly, I'm not sure the sarcasm tag applies to that post...
Camp of the Saints....
But they can sure rail on about a few port terminals! Meanwhile we are being overrun with illegals. Personally, I think there are 10m in Texas and another 10m in California alone....putting the total somewhere between 30 and 40 Million.
What do we get in return:
Closed hospitals
Increased health care costs.
Overcrowded prisons
Diseases we had all but eradicated
An underground economy
Increased crime
Identity Theft
Higher taxes
Increasing rate of unemployment of Americans
Lower standard of living for many Americans
Draining off of our social benefits
Gangs
Increased terrorism risks
Devaluation of our citizenship
Erosion of our national identity.
Lower tax revenues, since much of their work is off the books.
To name just a few.
Personally, I can't find one good thing about illegal immigration.
Since a[[ those examples are actual postings of illegal alien activity (I left MANY out), I should not have. I hope the GAO report on fraud is the silver bullet meant for the "guest worker" shamnesty.
I think your list is superb! I copied it because it's an excellent brief reminder of the points that can be elaborated upon in book form! The tragedy is that we've lost control of our own nation to a foreign illegal invasion.
I think I will start posting a list like this on the immigration threads.
E-mail me with any new ones you can think of.
Excellent idea! I'll give it some thought and contact you if I come up with anything. All best,
Keep me on the list / in the loop on immigration threads. Thanks
You have no idea how many concerned Americans there are who value this kind of scrutiny.
Please keep up your good work on this extremely critical issue.
HiJinx will put you on the border ping list.
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