Following a seven-day immigration enforcement operation conducted last month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today that their efforts led to more than 2,400 arrests.  The “Cross Check” operation targeted convicted criminal aliens and immigration fugitives throughout the U.S.
ICE Director John Morton explained that “the results of this operation underscore ICE’s ongoing focus on arresting those convicted criminal aliens who prey upon our communities, and tracking down fugitives who game our nation’s immigration system.”
Success of the operation resulted from collaboration between law enforcement agencies that included ICE, theU.S. Marshals Service (USMS), the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), U.S. Customs and Border Protection(CBP), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and state and local law enforcement throughout the U.S.
Arrests were made in all 50 states. Each person taken into custody had prior criminal convictions including armed robbery, drug trafficking, child abuse, sexual crimes against minors, aggravated assault, theft, forgery and DUI.  Among those arrested were:

  • A 32-year-old man from the Dominican Republic in Amesbury, Mass., who is a registered sex offender and convicted of indecent assault and battery on a child
  • A 37-year-old Mexican man in North Hills, Calif., convicted of an aggravated felony sex crime, rape of an unconscious victim, and illegally reentering the U.S. after deportation
  • A 47-year-old Mexican man in Magnolia, Texas, convicted of injury to a child with intent to cause bodily injury, burglary, and indecency with a child by sexual contact

This seven-day Cross Check operation was the largest of its kind. Nearly one quarter of the people taken into custody during the operation were immigrant fugitives and convicted criminal aliens with orders of deportation who had failed to leave the country.
Through its total efforts in fiscal year 2011, ICE has removed more than 109,700 criminal aliens from the U.S., including more than 585 convicted of homicide and more than 3,177 convicted sex offenders.
The first successful Cross Check operation was conducted in December 2009 with subsequent operations having taken place in 37 states plus regionally in the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest. A total of 2,064 convicted criminals, fugitives, and previously deported aliens had been arrested through Cross Check prior to last month’s operation.
ICE prioritizes its efforts first on removing criminal aliens who pose the greatest risk to the security of U.S. communities, in particular those charged with or convicted of homicide, rape, robbery, kidnapping, major drug offenses and national security threats. Its second priority is removing individuals who play the immigration system, including criminal aliens who have been previously deported and illegally re-entered the country.