Posted on 09/15/2006 5:25:11 PM PDT by mdittmar
GRAND RAPIDS — Federal immigration officials have completed a five-day sweep of western Michigan in which they apprehended 54 fugitive illegal immigrants who had disappeared after receiving deportation orders.
They also captured an illegal immigrant with an extensive criminal history who had illegally re-entered the United States after being removed, officials at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Thursday.
The initiative, dubbed "Operation Return to Sender," started Sept. 8 and ended Wednesday. The agency focused its efforts within the triangle formed by Lansing, Grand Rapids and Battle Creek.
The sweep was part of an "interior immigration enforcement strategy" that is a component of a multiyear plan by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to secure the nation's borders and reduce illegal immigration.
The nationwide operation started in June and has resulted in the arrests of 2,179 illegal immigrants to date.
Agents and officers from the Detroit office of ICE, which is part of Homeland Security, carried out the enforcement operation. The sheriff's offices of Calhoun and Kent counties provided "significant assistance," ICE said.
Those arrested range in age from 20 to 62 years. They are citizens of 13 countries: Burma, Cambodia, China, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Nicaragua, Turkey and Yugoslavia.
"Taking fugitive aliens off our streets remains a top ICE priority," said Robin Baker, field office director for the agency's Detention and Removal Operations Office in Detroit.
"The enforcement targets apprehended in this operation had their day in court and were ordered deported by a federal immigration judge. Each alien was allowed to the leave the U.S. on the judge's terms. Now they face deportation on ICE's terms."
Baker oversees an area that includes Michigan and Ohio.
Among the 55 people arrested, 11 have criminal records for convictions ranging from breaking and entering to assault with the intent to do great bodily harm. Fifty-four of the 55 failed to comply with final orders of removal issued by federal immigration judges.
The other person taken into custody is a six-time criminal who previously was deported, said ICE spokesman Gregory Palmore. Re-entering the United States after having been deported is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
These illegals are only those with criminal records and previous deportation orders.
ICE is giving a pass to all the rest who have not committed a crime (yet). The other illegals are almost welcome to stay (and take carpenter and drywall and landscape jobs away from US citizens.)
And it all comes to an end on November 8, when amnesty will be passed either by a new Democrat Congress or a more emboldened Republican elite who needs to placate teir corporate demands for cheap labor.
Mitten Ping? Include me!
Unfortunately, with our open borders, they are streaming in one hell of a lot faster than we are deporting them.
Put me on the Mitten Ping. I live close to the UP (der hey! Personally the UP should be its own state).
I'm all for arresting the illegals but what about the people who are hiring them?
That's like arresting the "Johns" instead of arresting the prostitutes. Arrest the prostitutes and you get rid of the "Johns". Arrest the employers and ............
There are NOT 12 million illegal aliens in this country.
but...but...Czar, El Presidente Bush keeps telling us that amnesty for invaders will solve everything... It makes no difference to him that the majority of Americans are vehemently against it, he keeps pushing it, and many of the crapweasels in Washington smile and agree with him...
Smoke & Mirrors Part 1
You could work a grid from 2200 So. Oxnard Bl, to 100 No. Oxnard Bl(CA) and arrest 20,000 in one day!
This time against our own tyrannical, taxing, elitist, government.
Precisely
We call this eyewash in the military. Smells like election year subtrefuge to me as well.
Here in Texas there are "work centers" where they congregate and traitors go and hire them tax free. INS turns a blind eye to them, the local politicians in fact support and have ceded land to the project because their fat cat friends make a lot of money using them in their businesses and also as servants mowing their grass and cleaning their homes.
"I wonder how many will be arrested after mid-term elections."
Thats a no-brainer.....NONE!
We could always suggest a ping list on the MI homepage. I did a few years ago, but there was no interest. Mitten apathy!
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