U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division recently completed a four-day immigration operation, the result of which led to the arrest of 95 undocumented migrants with criminal histories throughout the southeast Texas area.
The agency said all foreign nationals apprehended by ICE had prior criminal convictions and that the majority of the arrests (82 out of the 95) carried previous convictions of either homicide, aggravated assault, assault, burglary of a vehicle, child abuse, domestic violence, cocaine possession, fraud, driving under the influence, drug trafficking, felony marijuana possession, illegal entry, larceny, and weapons possession.
Of the arrested individuals, 66 were from Mexico, 11 were from Honduras, eight came from El Salvador, three were from Guatemala, and two were from Nicaragua. The remaining individuals originated from either Cambodia, Cuba, Nigeria, and Vietnam.
“This operation was focused on fugitives and criminal aliens,” ICE ERO Houston Field Office Director Patrick Contreras said. “Public safety remains a top priory for ICE. This was a focused four-day operation, but our routine operations occur daily.”
ICE said all targets in its operation were subject to arrest and removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Throughout FY2016, ICE conducted a total of 240,255 removals nationwide, 92 percent of which removed an individual with a previous criminal conviction.