ICE raids net 300 in San Diego, Imperial counties
By Debbi Baker
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM
1:22 p.m. September 29, 2008
SAN DIEGO – A sweep targeting illegal immigrants led to the arrest of more than 300 people – including at least 125 with criminal histories – in San Diego and Imperial counties. The arrests were part of a statewide operation that netted more than 1,000 arrests, officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Monday.
At least 102 of the 267 men and 34 women taken into custody in the two counties had been previously deported and returned or ignored court orders to leave the country, said ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack.
The arrests were the result of a three-week operation that ended last week. It was coordinated between the agency's fugitive operation teams and spearheaded by agents in San Diego, Mack said.
The agency reported a total of 1,157 arrests on a myriad of charges, including sexual assault, narcotics and voluntary manslaughter, with at least one person accused of making a terrorist threat, Mack said.
The majority of the arrests locally were made in San Diego, where 248 people were picked up, while 35 more were located in North County and 18 were taken into custody in El Centro, the spokeswoman said.
Mack said the coordinated effort was part of an ongoing operation to target specific areas and track fugitive immigrants who seldom have a permanent address and are difficult to pin down.
“The deployment of more fugitive operations teams, together with enhancements in our ability to track leads in these cases, have resulted in the arrest of record numbers of immigration fugitives this year and we expect that trend to continue,” said Julie L. Myers, an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, in a written statement. The agency oversees ICE.
Mack said the top 10 home countries were Mexico, Guatemala, Vietnam, El Salvador, Honduras, Iraq, Cuba, Laos, Somalia and the Philippines.
Many have already been removed from the country, with the remainder awaiting deportation or in criminal custody, Mack said.
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