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Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/070403sandiego.htm

April 3, 2007

More than 300 arrested in ICE operation targeting illegal alien fugitives and immigration violators in San Diego and Imperial Counties

SAN DIEGO - A total of 359 immigration violators from 15 different nations were arrested here during the past two weeks by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers as part of Operation Return to Sender, an ongoing ICE initiative targeting criminal aliens, foreign nationals with final orders of deportation, previously deported aliens, and other immigration violators.

Of the foreign nationals taken into custody during the two-week enforcement action, 50 have criminal records, including past convictions for child sex offenses, robbery, and drug violations. Among those arrested was a 26-year-old legal permanent resident from Pakistan who was sentenced to more than two years in federal prison for her role in a bank robbery. The group also included 61 immigration fugitives, aliens who have ignored final orders of deportation issued by immigration judges, and 39 previously deported aliens who illegally re-entered the United States after being removed.

Since many of these individuals have already been ordered deported through immigration proceedings, they are subject to immediate removal from the country. The remaining aliens are in ICE custody and are awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge. Some of those targeted as part of the enforcement action are immigration fugitives, illegal aliens who have ignored final orders of deportation issued by immigration judges.

The two-week local effort is part of Operation Return to Sender, an ongoing ICE initiative targeting criminal aliens, foreign nationals with final orders of deportation, and other immigration violators. Since its launch in late May 2006, Operation Return to Sender has resulted in more than 18,000 arrests nationwide. More than 850 of those arrests occurred in the San Diego area. The local arrests included more than 300 criminal aliens and nearly 300 immigration fugitives.

“The hundreds of immigration violators arrested during this operation are a testament to the hard work and perseverance of the ICE officers involved,” Robin Baker, field officer director for ICE detention and removal operations in San Diego. “Our message is - if you are ordered deported you should obey the immigration court’s order. Otherwise, ICE is going to track you down and send you home.” The majority of the aliens taken into custody here this week are Mexican nationals, but the group also included immigration violators from 14 other nations - Cambodia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Iraq, Laos, Peru, Pakistan, Philippines, Sierra Leon, Thailand and Viet Nam.

This week’s operation was conducted by officers with the two ICE fugitive operations teams currently assigned to San Diego and Imperial Counties. The Fugitive Operations Program was established in 2003 to eliminate the nation’s backlog of immigration fugitives. Today, there are 52 fugitive operations teams nationwide and ICE expects to expand that number to 75 by year’s end.

The fugitive operations initiative is an integral part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Border Initiative (SBI), a comprehensive multi-year plan to secure America’s borders and reduce illegal migration. Under SBI, Homeland Security seeks to gain operational control of both the northern and southern borders, while re-engineering the detention and removal system to ensure that illegal aliens are removed from the country quickly and efficiently. The SBI also involves strong interior enforcement efforts, including enhanced worksite enforcement, and intensified efforts to track down and remove illegal aliens inside this country.

— ICE —