The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers announced on Thursday that they have arrested almost 190 people in Southern California. A five-day operation targeted "public safety threats", including criminal foreign nationals, illegal re-entrants and immigration fugitives.
The six-county operation made 188 arrests and 90% percent or 169 of those arrests had prior criminal convictions. The priors included 15 people convicted of sex crimes, including a convicted rapist, a previously deported cocaine trafficker, and two people convicted of cruelty to a child.
“Operations like this are emblematic of the vital work ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers do every day seeking to locate, arrest, and ultimately deport at-large convicted criminals and other immigration fugitives who pose a threat to public safety,” said David Marin, field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations in Los Angeles. “By taking these individuals off the streets and removing them from the country, we’re making our communities safer for everyone.”
A majority of the 188 arrested were from Mexico (146) but there were also people booked from Russia, Armenia, Thailand, El Salvador, Vietnam, Cambodia, Russia and Guatemala.