October 1, 2008

ICE Arrests More than 1,000 in California in its Largest Special Operation

On September 29, 2008, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a press release announcing the outcome of its largest special operation in California. A three-week enforcement surge, which ended on Saturday, September 27, 2008, resulted in ICE’s Fugitive Operations Teams arresting and placing into deportation proceedings or deporting 1,157 individuals in California who are suspected of being criminal aliens, immigration fugitives and immigration violators. According to ICE, 308 of the individuals arrested were aliens who ignored final orders of deportation or returned to the U.S. illegally after being deported and nearly one-third of the individuals arrested had criminal histories.

ICE’s Fugitive Operations Program was established in 2003 in an effort to eliminate the backlog of immigration fugitives, which has been estimated to include approximately 560,000 individuals in the U.S. Today, the program has more than 95 teams throughout the U.S.