Federal immigration agents arrested 195 criminals living in the U.S. illegally during a five-day worksite enforcement operation around Los Angeles Sunday through Thursday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officers and special agents took a total of 212 people into custody during 122 notices of inspection to businesses throughout the southern California region.
ICE said 195 of the arrestees were convicted criminals, had been issued a final order of removal and failed to leave the country, or had been previously removed from the U.S. and returned illegally.
About 100 in that group have been previously convicted of violent offenses, including child sex crimes, weapons violations, and assault, as well as serious misdemeanor offenses.
ICE Director Thomas Homan defended the agency’s detainment of 27 noncriminal illegal immigrants and said those people were not the target of their enforcement operations. Due to Los Angeles’ sanctuary city policies, which bar federal officers from picking up individuals at the jail, ICE is forced to find them at their home or workplace or find them in other ways.
“Because sanctuary jurisdictions like Los Angeles prevent ICE from arresting criminal aliens in the secure confines of a jail, our officers are forced to conduct at-large arrests in the community, putting officers, the general public, and the aliens at greater risk and increasing the incidents of collateral arrests,” Homan said in a statement. “Fewer jail arrests mean more arrests on the street, and that also requires more resources, which is why we are forced to send additional resources to those areas to meet operational needs and officer safety.”
The interior enforcement agency conducted 1,360 of these I-9 audits in fiscal year 2017, and carried out notices of inspection at 77 northern California businesses in January and February.
Notices of inspection informs businesses that ICE will audit their hiring records to verify employees’ hiring eligibility. Businesses receive three days to produce papers confirming its employees’ eligibility to work, and if they do not, immigration agents will conduct an inspection for compliance.
