Over a six-day period ending Aug. 29, ICE agents arrested 109 immigrants as part of "Operation Return to Sender," a national ICE program targeting immigrants with criminal records, final orders of deportation or other immigration violations. Most of those arrested were from Mexico; others were from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize, the Philippines, Colombia, Belgium, Iran, Cuba, and Korea. By Aug. 29, more than 35 of the immigrants had already been removed from the US. The rest were in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge. Of the 109 people arrested, 59 had prior criminal records. (ICE press release, Aug. 2; AP, Aug. 2)

In a sweep of the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area between Aug. 23 and Sept. 1, ICE agents arrested 90 out-of-status immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, El Salvador, Indonesia, Cambodia, Ukraine, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Of the total, only 48 had final orders of deportation. Ten of those arrested had prior criminal convictions. ICE's local "fugitive operations team" was supported in the raids--part of "Operation Return to Sender"--by ICE officers from Omaha, Grand Island and North Platte, Nebraska; and from Des Moines and Sioux City, Iowa. Also assisting was the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)-sponsored Minnesota Fugitive Task Force and the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department. (ICE press release, Sept. 7)

From Immigration News Briefs, Sept. 9

See our last posts on the immigration crackdown and Operation Return to Sender.