In a three-week enforcement operation that ended Sept. 27, ICE fugitive operations teams arrested 1,157 immigrants in California: 436 in the San Francisco area, 420 in the Los Angeles area and 301 in the San Diego area. The operation targeted "fugitives" who have failed to comply with deportation orders and immigrants with criminal convictions. ICE spokesperson Virginia Kice said 595 of those arrested had outstanding deportation orders and 346 had criminal convictions. Those arrested come from 34 countries. (LAT, Sept. 29; ICE news release, Sept. 29)

On Oct. 1, ICE announced that its fugitive operations teams had arrested 78 out-of-status immigrants in a week-long operation in Pennsylvania and Delaware; 43 of those arrested were people the agency considers "fugitives"; of those 43, 13 had criminal records. The other 35 people arrested were in the US without permission. ICE was supported in the operation by the Federal Protective Service, the Georgetown Police Department in Delaware and the Ross Police Department in Pennsylvania. (ICE news release, Oct. 1)

On Sept. 30, ICE announced that its New Jersey fugitive operations teams had arrested 76 people in a six-day statewide operation that ended the weekend of Sept. 27-28. Sixty of those arrested were considered "fugitives"; 24 of them had criminal records. Another 16 people were found to be out of status; seven of them also had criminal records. (ICE news release, Sept. 30)

According to a news report from WROC-TV in Rochester, NY, 20 people were arrested in ICE raids over the weekend of Sept. 27-28 in the area around Sodus, just east of Rochester in Wayne County. ICE told the station its agents were after at least two "fugitives." In the process, they found and arrested other out-of-status immigrants. A woman who lives in a trailer park in Sodus, who spoke to WROC through an interpreter, said one of the raids took place there around 6 AM on Sept. 28. The woman, who asked not to be identified, said the agents went into her bedroom without permission as she and her two daughters watched in fear. "That's when they found my husband inside the room, and they took him out and took him," she said. (WROC-TV, Oct. 2)

In a five-day operation that ended on Sept. 26, ICE fugitive operations team in Miami arrested 116 immigrants in South Florida: 42 in Miami-Dade county, 33 in Broward county and 41 in Monroe county. Of the total 116 people arrested, 74 had failed to comply with deportation orders and 42 were out of status. Thirty of the 116 were verified to be sole caregivers or as having medical concerns and were released under ICE supervision as part of the Alternatives to Detention Program after being processed for removal. The other 86 people remain in detention. Those arrested were from countries including Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Mexico, Honduras, China, Haiti, El Salvador, and Jamaica. (ICE news
release, Sept. 29)

From Sept. 20 through 24, ICE fugitive operations teams and other area officers arrested 63 immigrants in western Oklahoma. The arrests were made in the towns of Oklahoma City, Norman, Harrah, Mustang, Edmond, Chickasha, Jones and surrounding areas. Those arrested are from El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, Nicaragua, Cambodia, Ghana, Guatemala and Honduras. The agents that took part in the raids are based in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Lubbock, Texas. Of the total 63 people arrested, 45 had final orders of deportation; 18 were out-of-status immigrants encountered during the course of the raids. Nine of those arrested had criminal convictions. The Oklahoma City Police Department collaborated with some of the arrests. Two alleged gang members had nine outstanding state warrants; they were released to the Oklahoma City police to resolve their pending criminal charges. (ICE news release, Sept. 26)

From Immigration News Briefs, Oct. 5

See our last posts on the politics of immigration, the "fugitive" crackdown and the struggle in California.