Dozens of criminal aliens, fugitives nabbed during dragnet

During a law enforcement dragnet within the Jackson. Mississippi area, federal law enforcement officers arrested 58 suspects, including convicted criminal aliens, immigration fugitives and known gang members and gang affiliates. The Immigration & Customs Enforcement operation concluded last week, according to a report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

Many of the criminal aliens taken into custody had prior convictions for serious or violent crimes, such as sexual assault, possessing and selling dangerous drugs, drunken driving, sexual contact and battery, assault, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Eleven of the suspects ICE officers took into custody were immigration fugitives, aliens with outstanding orders of deportation who had failed to leave the country.

The arrests took place in the Mississippi cities of Brandon, Pearl, Ridgeland, Canton, Carthage, Crystal Springs, Hazlehurst and Jackson.

The Ridgeland Police Department, Leake Sheriff Office and Pearl Police Department assisted ICE Enforcement and Removal officers with the arrests.

Of those arrested, there were 57 men and one woman. Forty are from Mexico, nine are from Guatemala, four are from Honduras, two are from Panama, one is from El Salvador, one is from Peru, and one is from Costa Rica. They range in age from 17 to 71.

Seven of those arrested had been previously deported. A conviction for felony re-entry carries a penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison.

This latest enforcement action was spearheaded by ICE's fugitive operations program, which is responsible for locating, arresting and removing at-large criminal aliens and immigration fugitives -- aliens who have ignored final orders of deportation handed down by the nation's immigration courts.

ICE's fugitive operations teams give top priority to cases involving aliens who pose a threat to national security and public safety, including members of transnational street gangs and child sex offenders, according to officials.

Largely as a result of these enforcement initiatives, ICE officials claim that last year they removed more than 392,800 aliens from the United States; of that number, more than 195,700 were aliens with criminal convictions.

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