Por Elizabeth Vargas
Ensenada.net
1 de octubre de 2011
Los datos biométricos de personas internadas por diversos delitos en cárceles de California, Estados Unidos y que podrían ser deportadas a México se ha convertido en una prioridad para Baja California.
El Secretario de Seguridad Pública de Baja California Daniel de la Rosa Anaya, reveló que dentro de los acuerdos de la XXIX Conferencia de Gobernadores Fronterizos, este es un proceso que fue planteado pero aun no se concluye.
Existe un plan piloto con el sur de California para generar intercambio en materia de seguridad, en particular los compartir datos biométricos de miles de criminales de sus cárceles.
El objetivo es que Estados Unidos como nación, proporciones esos datos de las cárceles estatales y federales, particularmente en aquellos casos donde se trata de personas indocumentadas que luego son deportadas al México.
Existen actualmente avances en esta materia, hay información de prisiones de California, pero cuando llega a México no es oportuna y se trata solo nombres, nada mas.
El acuerdo que se tiene, plantea que además que los datos se den de forma oportuna, se incluyan datos biométricos de sus delincuentes de los cuales ahora al ser deportados, solamente se le avisa a México que se les liberará en la frontera, pero no se realizan otras especificaciones.
Estados Unidos tiene implementado en varios de sus Estados, un programa denominado Comunidades seguras, el cual fue arrancado en el 2008 y para el 2009 contemplaba incluir a 25 condados ubicados a lo largo de la frontera México-Estados Unidos.
Este programa ha procesado las huellas digitales de 1 millón de individuos que son ingresados a cárceles locales, en ciudades como Phoenix, Arizona; Dallas y Houston, Texas; Miami, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts; y Los Ángeles, California.
Esta base de datos de ser entregada a los estados fronterizos mexicanos, permitiría una herramienta más, para el combate a la delincuencia en ambas regiones.
Actualmente de las miles de deportaciones que recibe México en su Frontera Norte, no se tienen datos precisos de quienes son y que crímenes cometieron en aquella nación.
http://www.ensenada.net/noticias/nota.php?id=22127
Showing posts with label Criminal Aliens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Criminal Aliens. Show all posts
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
Federal immigration crackdown includes 18 arrests in Sacramento area
By Stephen Magagnini
The Sacramento Bee
Thursday, Sep. 29, 2011
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the arrest Wednesday of more than 2,900 immigrants convicted of crimes, including 18 in the Sacramento area.
The weeklong raids across the country reflect ICE's focus "on the arrest and removal of convicted criminal aliens that threaten the public safety of our communities here in Northern California," said Timothy Aitken, field office director of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Francisco.
That office supervised the arrest of 186 immigrants in the Bay Area and the north state who are considered fugitives or have criminal histories.
The 18 arrested in the Sacramento region came from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, the Philippines and Uzbekistan, said Michael Vaughn, assistant field director for ICE in Sacramento. Only one was a legal permanent resident, Vaughn said, and all are facing possible deportation.
"They were convicted of crimes ranging from DUI to voluntary manslaughter," Vaughn said. "I've got drug cases, spousal abuse cases, transportation to sell narcotics, possession for sale, carrying a concealed weapon, willful cruelty to child, battery on a peace officer and theft."
Six of those arrested were ICE fugitives who had already been ordered removed by an immigration judge, but then disappeared, Vaughn said.
Seven others arrested in Sacramento are facing deportation for their convictions, but still will have their day in court before an immigration judge, Vaughn said.
Five more were previously deported criminal aliens who had returned to the United States and were apprehended again. They included a 52-year-old Mexican national who had been deported after being convicted of voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon. He was arrested by Sacramento's fugitive operations team in Stockton and faces federal prosecution for illegal re-entry after deportation, a crime which can bring up to 20 years in prison, Vaughn said.
Those arrested in the Central Valley were picked up as far north as Chico, as far south as Modesto and as far east as Roseville, Vaughn said.
ICE said it's targeting immigrants who present the greatest security risk to public, such as those charged with or convicted of homicide, rape, robbery, kidnapping, major drug offenses and threats to national security. The agency is also tracking those who have been previously deported and illegally re-entered the country.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/29/3946874/federal-immigration-crackdown.html
The Sacramento Bee
Thursday, Sep. 29, 2011
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the arrest Wednesday of more than 2,900 immigrants convicted of crimes, including 18 in the Sacramento area.
The weeklong raids across the country reflect ICE's focus "on the arrest and removal of convicted criminal aliens that threaten the public safety of our communities here in Northern California," said Timothy Aitken, field office director of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations in San Francisco.
That office supervised the arrest of 186 immigrants in the Bay Area and the north state who are considered fugitives or have criminal histories.
The 18 arrested in the Sacramento region came from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, the Philippines and Uzbekistan, said Michael Vaughn, assistant field director for ICE in Sacramento. Only one was a legal permanent resident, Vaughn said, and all are facing possible deportation.
"They were convicted of crimes ranging from DUI to voluntary manslaughter," Vaughn said. "I've got drug cases, spousal abuse cases, transportation to sell narcotics, possession for sale, carrying a concealed weapon, willful cruelty to child, battery on a peace officer and theft."
Six of those arrested were ICE fugitives who had already been ordered removed by an immigration judge, but then disappeared, Vaughn said.
Seven others arrested in Sacramento are facing deportation for their convictions, but still will have their day in court before an immigration judge, Vaughn said.
Five more were previously deported criminal aliens who had returned to the United States and were apprehended again. They included a 52-year-old Mexican national who had been deported after being convicted of voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon. He was arrested by Sacramento's fugitive operations team in Stockton and faces federal prosecution for illegal re-entry after deportation, a crime which can bring up to 20 years in prison, Vaughn said.
Those arrested in the Central Valley were picked up as far north as Chico, as far south as Modesto and as far east as Roseville, Vaughn said.
ICE said it's targeting immigrants who present the greatest security risk to public, such as those charged with or convicted of homicide, rape, robbery, kidnapping, major drug offenses and threats to national security. The agency is also tracking those who have been previously deported and illegally re-entered the country.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/29/3946874/federal-immigration-crackdown.html
Friday, March 25, 2011
Illegal immigrant charged with box cutter assault on ICE agent in Kansas
By Associated Press
March 24, 2011
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — An illegal immigrant from Mexico is accused of using a box cutter to threaten a deportation officer who was questioning him in Wichita.
A criminal complaint filed Thursday in federal court charges 31-year-old Jose Luis Ramirez-Rico with assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.
According to court documents, agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement went to Ramirez-Rico's house in Wichita on March 17. He's accused of picking up a box cutter with the blade out and thrusting it toward ICE agent Gregorio Perez when questioned about his immigration status.
An affidavit states that Perez yelled at Ramirez Rico to "drop the knife," before agents wrestled him to the floor and disarmed him before anyone was hurt.
No defense attorney is yet listed in court records.
http://www.kwch.com/news/sns-ap-ks--iceagent-assault,0,1731626.story
March 24, 2011
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — An illegal immigrant from Mexico is accused of using a box cutter to threaten a deportation officer who was questioning him in Wichita.
A criminal complaint filed Thursday in federal court charges 31-year-old Jose Luis Ramirez-Rico with assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.
According to court documents, agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement went to Ramirez-Rico's house in Wichita on March 17. He's accused of picking up a box cutter with the blade out and thrusting it toward ICE agent Gregorio Perez when questioned about his immigration status.
An affidavit states that Perez yelled at Ramirez Rico to "drop the knife," before agents wrestled him to the floor and disarmed him before anyone was hurt.
No defense attorney is yet listed in court records.
http://www.kwch.com/news/sns-ap-ks--iceagent-assault,0,1731626.story
Monday, March 14, 2011
Bill would require convicted illegal immigrant criminals to be deported when released
By Keona Gardner
TCPalm
Sunday, March 13, 2011
An immigration enforcement program created to help federal authorities capture and deport illegal immigrants with a violent criminal history is deporting more people who have no criminal background than those who do, records show.
And federal officials can't explain why.
Since February 2009 when the Secure Communities program started on the Treasure Coast, 119 illegal immigrants without a criminal background have been deported, compared to 25 — or about 13 percent — illegal immigrants who have past violent crime convictions such as murder, drug trafficking or rape, according to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement records.
Statewide, about 42 percent of illegal immigrants labeled "noncriminal" have been deported, compared to about 20 percent of illegal immigrants who have a violent criminal history, records show. Nationally, 28 percent of illegal immigrants without a criminal history have been deported compared to about 23 percent of those with a violent criminal history.
ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas couldn't explain why more noncriminal illegal immigrants are deported.
One explanation could be that immigration law requires any current charges to have been resolved before deportation proceedings begin, authorities said.
Despite the disparity between noncriminal and criminal deportations, Navas said the program is a success because it follows the ultimate objective of ICE — to enforce federal immigration laws.
"Secure Communities is ICE's comprehensive strategy to improve and modernize the identification and removal of criminal aliens from the United States," she said.
Secure Communities works by requiring local law enforcement agencies to scan the fingerprints of everyone booked into the local jail and compare those fingerprints with immigration records from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and criminal history records from the FBI, Navas said.
If fingerprints match records from Homeland Security, then local law enforcement officials notify ICE.
Then, ICE investigators determine what immigration action is needed by considering immigration status, severity of the recent crime committed and criminal history, Navas said.
Treasure Coast law enforcement officials said the program helps authorities quickly learn an arrestee's complete criminal history and they receive a faster response time from ICE when the agency learns a non-U.S. citizen has been arrested.
"Before, if we arrested someone and they posted bond, we never knew if that person was illegal or if they were a legal permanent resident before they left," said Indian River County Sheriff's Office Capt. Selby Strickland, who supervises the jail.
St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office Maj. Patrick Tighe, who oversees the jail, said he has no complaints about how the program works and that it hasn't changed how staff work because the jail already had a computerized fingerprinting system.
"(ICE is) able to provide us information that helps to reduce risks to officer safety and can be used in criminal investigations," Martin County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Rhonda Irons said,
But Vero Beach immigration attorney Jimmy Benincasa called the federal enforcement program "a large dragnet" that does more harm than good.
"The problem is that it catches all the fish that you want and the ones that you need to throw back," Benincasa said.
Benincasa said he supports deporting immigrants who have committed violent crimes, but cautions not to label all illegal immigrants as criminals because of their status.
"What about an 18-year-old or 21-year-old who was brought here as a child?" he said. "Are we going to send them back when this is the only country they know? When, possibly, they don't speak the language?"
Immigration enforcement programs like Secure Communities could receive help in removing convicted illegal immigrants because of a proposed bill that would require Homeland Security to do so.
U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, who represents parts of Martin and St. Lucie counties, introduced legislation on March 3 that would require Homeland Security to deport illegal immigrants who have been convicted of committing a crime at the time of their release.
Under the proposed Criminal Alien Removal Act, prisons will be allowed to hold convicted illegal immigrants after they have served their sentence until they can be transferred to federal custody. Under current law, if ICE is not present when an illegal immigrant's incarceration ends, then the inmate is released, Rooney said.
"The current situation, where criminals who are here illegally in the first place just get released back into the community, is unacceptable," Rooney said in an e-mail.
Rooney said his bill, which has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee for discussion, has the same goals as Secure Communities — identifying and deporting immigrants who have committed crimes.
"We cannot continue to allow criminal aliens to slip through the cracks," he said in an e-mail.
Groups that support immigration enforcement said they are pleased the program is working to identify all illegal immigrants because it helps secure our borders, lessen the taxload and keep jobs for U.S. citizens and immigrants who are here legally.
"The minute you enter this country illegally you are submitting yourself to deportation," said Stuart resident Jack Oliver, legislative director for Floridians for Immigration Enforcement. "There's nothing unfair to enforcing the law. The law is the law. Either we're going to be a nation of laws or we aren't."
GOING HOME
Below is a breakdown of illegal immigrants removed from the United States and returned to their home county through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Secure Communities Program. The program groups illegal immigrants into one of four categories:
Level 1: Illegal immigrants convicted of the most violent crimes such as murder, rape, drug trafficking
Level 2: Illegal immigrants convicted of property crimes, extortion and three or more misdemeanors
Level 3: Illegal immigrants convicted of misdemeanor crimes such as minor drug offenses and disorderly conduct
Non-criminal: Illegal immigrants who have never been convicted of a crime, though they are in this country illegally
Indian River County
Activation: June 22, 2009
Level 1 offenders: 6 arrested; 0 removed
Level 2 offenders: 2 arrested; 0 removed
Level 3 offenders: 2 arrested; 2 removed
Non-criminals: 15 arrested; 8 removed
Martin County
Activation: June 22, 2009
Level 1 offenders: 6 arrested; 2 removed
Level 2 offenders: 6 arrested; 2 removed
Level 3 offenders: 5 arrested; 1 removed
Non-criminals: 33 arrested; 21 removed
St. Lucie County
Activation: Feb. 18, 2009
Level 1 offenders: 72 arrested; 23 removed
Level 2 offenders: 63 arrested; 39 removed
Level 3 offenders: 15 arrested; 12 removed
Non-criminals: 148 arrested; 90 removed
Source: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/mar/13/program-deporting-more-people-who-have-no-than/
TCPalm
Sunday, March 13, 2011
An immigration enforcement program created to help federal authorities capture and deport illegal immigrants with a violent criminal history is deporting more people who have no criminal background than those who do, records show.
And federal officials can't explain why.
Since February 2009 when the Secure Communities program started on the Treasure Coast, 119 illegal immigrants without a criminal background have been deported, compared to 25 — or about 13 percent — illegal immigrants who have past violent crime convictions such as murder, drug trafficking or rape, according to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement records.
Statewide, about 42 percent of illegal immigrants labeled "noncriminal" have been deported, compared to about 20 percent of illegal immigrants who have a violent criminal history, records show. Nationally, 28 percent of illegal immigrants without a criminal history have been deported compared to about 23 percent of those with a violent criminal history.
ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas couldn't explain why more noncriminal illegal immigrants are deported.
One explanation could be that immigration law requires any current charges to have been resolved before deportation proceedings begin, authorities said.
Despite the disparity between noncriminal and criminal deportations, Navas said the program is a success because it follows the ultimate objective of ICE — to enforce federal immigration laws.
"Secure Communities is ICE's comprehensive strategy to improve and modernize the identification and removal of criminal aliens from the United States," she said.
Secure Communities works by requiring local law enforcement agencies to scan the fingerprints of everyone booked into the local jail and compare those fingerprints with immigration records from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and criminal history records from the FBI, Navas said.
If fingerprints match records from Homeland Security, then local law enforcement officials notify ICE.
Then, ICE investigators determine what immigration action is needed by considering immigration status, severity of the recent crime committed and criminal history, Navas said.
Treasure Coast law enforcement officials said the program helps authorities quickly learn an arrestee's complete criminal history and they receive a faster response time from ICE when the agency learns a non-U.S. citizen has been arrested.
"Before, if we arrested someone and they posted bond, we never knew if that person was illegal or if they were a legal permanent resident before they left," said Indian River County Sheriff's Office Capt. Selby Strickland, who supervises the jail.
St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office Maj. Patrick Tighe, who oversees the jail, said he has no complaints about how the program works and that it hasn't changed how staff work because the jail already had a computerized fingerprinting system.
"(ICE is) able to provide us information that helps to reduce risks to officer safety and can be used in criminal investigations," Martin County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Rhonda Irons said,
But Vero Beach immigration attorney Jimmy Benincasa called the federal enforcement program "a large dragnet" that does more harm than good.
"The problem is that it catches all the fish that you want and the ones that you need to throw back," Benincasa said.
Benincasa said he supports deporting immigrants who have committed violent crimes, but cautions not to label all illegal immigrants as criminals because of their status.
"What about an 18-year-old or 21-year-old who was brought here as a child?" he said. "Are we going to send them back when this is the only country they know? When, possibly, they don't speak the language?"
Immigration enforcement programs like Secure Communities could receive help in removing convicted illegal immigrants because of a proposed bill that would require Homeland Security to do so.
U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, who represents parts of Martin and St. Lucie counties, introduced legislation on March 3 that would require Homeland Security to deport illegal immigrants who have been convicted of committing a crime at the time of their release.
Under the proposed Criminal Alien Removal Act, prisons will be allowed to hold convicted illegal immigrants after they have served their sentence until they can be transferred to federal custody. Under current law, if ICE is not present when an illegal immigrant's incarceration ends, then the inmate is released, Rooney said.
"The current situation, where criminals who are here illegally in the first place just get released back into the community, is unacceptable," Rooney said in an e-mail.
Rooney said his bill, which has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee for discussion, has the same goals as Secure Communities — identifying and deporting immigrants who have committed crimes.
"We cannot continue to allow criminal aliens to slip through the cracks," he said in an e-mail.
Groups that support immigration enforcement said they are pleased the program is working to identify all illegal immigrants because it helps secure our borders, lessen the taxload and keep jobs for U.S. citizens and immigrants who are here legally.
"The minute you enter this country illegally you are submitting yourself to deportation," said Stuart resident Jack Oliver, legislative director for Floridians for Immigration Enforcement. "There's nothing unfair to enforcing the law. The law is the law. Either we're going to be a nation of laws or we aren't."
GOING HOME
Below is a breakdown of illegal immigrants removed from the United States and returned to their home county through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Secure Communities Program. The program groups illegal immigrants into one of four categories:
Level 1: Illegal immigrants convicted of the most violent crimes such as murder, rape, drug trafficking
Level 2: Illegal immigrants convicted of property crimes, extortion and three or more misdemeanors
Level 3: Illegal immigrants convicted of misdemeanor crimes such as minor drug offenses and disorderly conduct
Non-criminal: Illegal immigrants who have never been convicted of a crime, though they are in this country illegally
Indian River County
Activation: June 22, 2009
Level 1 offenders: 6 arrested; 0 removed
Level 2 offenders: 2 arrested; 0 removed
Level 3 offenders: 2 arrested; 2 removed
Non-criminals: 15 arrested; 8 removed
Martin County
Activation: June 22, 2009
Level 1 offenders: 6 arrested; 2 removed
Level 2 offenders: 6 arrested; 2 removed
Level 3 offenders: 5 arrested; 1 removed
Non-criminals: 33 arrested; 21 removed
St. Lucie County
Activation: Feb. 18, 2009
Level 1 offenders: 72 arrested; 23 removed
Level 2 offenders: 63 arrested; 39 removed
Level 3 offenders: 15 arrested; 12 removed
Non-criminals: 148 arrested; 90 removed
Source: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/mar/13/program-deporting-more-people-who-have-no-than/
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
ICE strikes with raids
By LAURA B. MARTINEZ and JACQUELINE ARMENDARIZ
The Brownsville Herald
March 2, 2011
An early morning raid led to the arrest Wednesday of several Brownsville residents accused of drug trafficking and money laundering.
Arturo Gomez, 31, Magda Zendejas, 28, Reyna Ceballos, 21, Julio Gonzalez, 45, David Alcala, 30, Vanessa Weaver, 28, and Sonia Garcia-Medina, 26, were arrested in a federal investigation dubbed “Operation Stained Glass,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
During Wednesday’s arrest, federal authorities seized $524,000 in cash and 2 kilograms or 5 pounds of cocaine at a residence located at the 500 block of Salvatierra in the vicinity of the Brownsville Country Club.
The group will appear this morning before U.S. Magistrate Felix Recio on the charges. The United States will request that they remain held without bail pending further investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
The residents are named in a four-count federal indictment that was unsealed Wednesday. It charges Gomez, Zendejas, Ceballos, Gonzalez and Alcala with conspiring over a two-year period to possess and distribute more than 5 kilograms or more than 10 pounds of cocaine.
Gomez is also charged with a count of money laundering and another count of attempting to smuggle $47,205 in cash. It alleges Gomez was trying to transfer the money to Mexico.
According the indictment, the government intends to seek a money judgment against Gomez for $1 million, which is the amount of money that was allegedly laundered.
Weaver is also charged with a count of attempting to smuggle $16,530 in cash possibly to Mexico as well.
Garcia-Medina is charged with a separate criminal complaint with being illegally in the United States after being deported.
Nina Pruneda, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, declined to say whether Wednesday’s arrest was related to the ongoing investigation of the murder of ICE Special Agent Jaime Jorge Zapata, referring comments to ICE Director John Morton.
Zapata, 32, a native of Brownsville who worked for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was killed last month in Mexico in an attack by members of the Zetas criminal organization while traveling along Highway 57 in the San Luis Potosí state, according to U.S. officials. A fellow agent, Victor Avila, was wounded in the attack.
Pruneda said the FBI is the lead agency in the Zapata killing and that ICE, as Morton said, would continue to work with its law enforcement partners in Mexico for a quick resolution of the investigation.
“I can’t speak to what’s going on in the South Texas area as being anything connected to that," she said of the Zapata investigation and Wednesday’s arrests. "I think that would be irresponsible of me to comment on something like that.”
Wednesday’s arrests occurred in at least six different locations in the Brownsville area both within and outside the city limits.
The Brownsville Police Department assisted, she said, along with other law enforcement agencies. Police spokesman Eddie Garcia said K-9 units from the department were present and that he had no other details to give.
"It started off as a federal search warrant based on an ongoing investigation that we have that is connected to money laundering and narcotics smuggling," Pruneda said, noting that the investigations supported the agency’s public safety mission.
The arrests were conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service.
© Copyright 2011 Freedom Communications. All Rights Reserved.
The Brownsville Herald
March 2, 2011
An early morning raid led to the arrest Wednesday of several Brownsville residents accused of drug trafficking and money laundering.
Arturo Gomez, 31, Magda Zendejas, 28, Reyna Ceballos, 21, Julio Gonzalez, 45, David Alcala, 30, Vanessa Weaver, 28, and Sonia Garcia-Medina, 26, were arrested in a federal investigation dubbed “Operation Stained Glass,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
During Wednesday’s arrest, federal authorities seized $524,000 in cash and 2 kilograms or 5 pounds of cocaine at a residence located at the 500 block of Salvatierra in the vicinity of the Brownsville Country Club.
The group will appear this morning before U.S. Magistrate Felix Recio on the charges. The United States will request that they remain held without bail pending further investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
The residents are named in a four-count federal indictment that was unsealed Wednesday. It charges Gomez, Zendejas, Ceballos, Gonzalez and Alcala with conspiring over a two-year period to possess and distribute more than 5 kilograms or more than 10 pounds of cocaine.
Gomez is also charged with a count of money laundering and another count of attempting to smuggle $47,205 in cash. It alleges Gomez was trying to transfer the money to Mexico.
According the indictment, the government intends to seek a money judgment against Gomez for $1 million, which is the amount of money that was allegedly laundered.
Weaver is also charged with a count of attempting to smuggle $16,530 in cash possibly to Mexico as well.
Garcia-Medina is charged with a separate criminal complaint with being illegally in the United States after being deported.
Nina Pruneda, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, declined to say whether Wednesday’s arrest was related to the ongoing investigation of the murder of ICE Special Agent Jaime Jorge Zapata, referring comments to ICE Director John Morton.
Zapata, 32, a native of Brownsville who worked for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was killed last month in Mexico in an attack by members of the Zetas criminal organization while traveling along Highway 57 in the San Luis Potosí state, according to U.S. officials. A fellow agent, Victor Avila, was wounded in the attack.
Pruneda said the FBI is the lead agency in the Zapata killing and that ICE, as Morton said, would continue to work with its law enforcement partners in Mexico for a quick resolution of the investigation.
“I can’t speak to what’s going on in the South Texas area as being anything connected to that," she said of the Zapata investigation and Wednesday’s arrests. "I think that would be irresponsible of me to comment on something like that.”
Wednesday’s arrests occurred in at least six different locations in the Brownsville area both within and outside the city limits.
The Brownsville Police Department assisted, she said, along with other law enforcement agencies. Police spokesman Eddie Garcia said K-9 units from the department were present and that he had no other details to give.
"It started off as a federal search warrant based on an ongoing investigation that we have that is connected to money laundering and narcotics smuggling," Pruneda said, noting that the investigations supported the agency’s public safety mission.
The arrests were conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service.
© Copyright 2011 Freedom Communications. All Rights Reserved.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
ICE raids lead to arrests of 16 in Reno area
The Reno Gazette Journal
November 19, 2010
During a recent sweep targeting illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, 16 arrests were made in the Reno-area by Immigration and Customs Enforcement a
The 12 men and four women booked into the Washoe County Jail were from Mexico and El Salvador, said ICE’s Fugitive Operations Program in a statement. The four-day operation ended Friday morning, where agents from ICE office Las Vegas and local parole and probation officers assisted.
So far in 2010, sweeps like these have caused 195,772 convicted criminal illegal immigrants to be deported from the United States, authorities said.
ICE Director John Morton said the operation is a tool used to reduce crime at the street level, making communities safer.
Of the 16 Reno arrests:
*One person had a final deportation order, and was not a convicted criminal.
* Fifteen had prior criminal convictions.
* A 40-year-old Mexican woman was arrested after a judge deported her earlier this year based upon a 2003 conviction of willfully endangering a child.
* One man arrested was a member of a local Mexican street gang and had previous felony convictions of robbery and stalking.
Authorities said two of the 16 arrested have already been deported.
Agents used information from the ICE Fugitive Operations Support Center, which does database checks to help ensure the accuracy of leads on suspects and criminal histories. Since it began in 2006, the support center has given agents more than 550,000 leads nationwide on criminal illegal immigrants in the country.
http://www.rgj.com/article/20101119/NEWS01/101119034/1321/news
November 19, 2010
During a recent sweep targeting illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, 16 arrests were made in the Reno-area by Immigration and Customs Enforcement a
The 12 men and four women booked into the Washoe County Jail were from Mexico and El Salvador, said ICE’s Fugitive Operations Program in a statement. The four-day operation ended Friday morning, where agents from ICE office Las Vegas and local parole and probation officers assisted.
So far in 2010, sweeps like these have caused 195,772 convicted criminal illegal immigrants to be deported from the United States, authorities said.
ICE Director John Morton said the operation is a tool used to reduce crime at the street level, making communities safer.
Of the 16 Reno arrests:
*One person had a final deportation order, and was not a convicted criminal.
* Fifteen had prior criminal convictions.
* A 40-year-old Mexican woman was arrested after a judge deported her earlier this year based upon a 2003 conviction of willfully endangering a child.
* One man arrested was a member of a local Mexican street gang and had previous felony convictions of robbery and stalking.
Authorities said two of the 16 arrested have already been deported.
Agents used information from the ICE Fugitive Operations Support Center, which does database checks to help ensure the accuracy of leads on suspects and criminal histories. Since it began in 2006, the support center has given agents more than 550,000 leads nationwide on criminal illegal immigrants in the country.
http://www.rgj.com/article/20101119/NEWS01/101119034/1321/news
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)