U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that authorities arrested more than 600 illegal immigrants, 545 of whom were criminals. Seven gang members were also arrested.
Of those charged with a criminal offense, 140 migrants were charged or convicted of a violent offense, 34 were charged with a sex offense, 38 were charged or convicted of illegal firearm offenses, 52 were involved in illicit narcotics, 51 were involved in property crimes, and 93 drove while intoxicated.
The operation took place between February 23 and March 2 in Houston, Texas, ICE explained.
ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office Director Bret Bradford said in a statement, “In recent years, some of the world’s most dangerous fugitives, transnational gang members and criminal aliens have taken advantage of the crisis at our nation’s southern border to illegally enter the U.S.”
“After illegally entering the country, many of these criminal aliens have gone on to commit violent crime and reign terror on law-abiding residents. Fueled by our unwavering commitment to protect the public from harm, and united in our determination to restore integrity to our nation’s system of laws, ICE and our law enforcement partners in Southeast Texas have banded together to remove these dangerous criminal aliens from our local communities and put an end to the lawlessness that they spread.”
“In just one week working alongside our counterparts from federal, state and local law enforcement, ICE HSI special agents successfully executed 71 criminal arrest warrants and made 554 administrative arrests that included illegally present human smugglers, gang members, human traffickers, child sex offenders, drug traffickers and weapons traffickers,” ICE Homeland Security Investigations Houston Special Agent in Charge Chad Plantz stated.
