Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested more than two dozen criminal aliens throughout central Florida, at least one of whom was previously deported from the United States.
In what the agency terms a “targeted enforcement action,” ICE officers with Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested 25 criminal aliens from February 29 through March 4.
In keeping with the administration’s so-called “enforcement priorities” — which largely only enforces immigration law against those illegal immigrants who have committed a bad enough crime — the arrested criminal aliens had all committed offenses that met the administration’s top two priority levels.
Per the administration’s enforcement priorities — released in conjunction with President Obama’s November 2014 executive amnesty programs — “Priority 1” illegal immigrants are those who are a national security threat, gang member, and/or those convicted of felonies. “Priority 2” include illegal immigrants convicted of three or more misdemeanors or of “significant” misdemeanors, including drunk-driving.
“ICE prioritizes convicted criminals and public safety threats for apprehension and removal,” Marc J. Moore, field office director for the Miami ERO Field Office, said in a statement. “Our enforcement actions last week made our communities safer today.”
According to ICE, offenses committed by those illegal immigrants arrested included manslaughter, child abuse, robbery, false imprisonment, felony DUI, hit and run, armed burglary, racketeering, and weapons and drug offenses.
The arrestees’ countries of origin included Ecuador, the United Kingdom, Morocco, Mexico, Turks & Caicos, El Salvador, Jamaica, Trinidad, Canada, England, and Guyana.
In recent years the Obama administration has come under fire for releasing criminal illegal immigrants back into the U.S. rather than deporting them. Monday, the Center for Immigration Studies released a report detailing how since 2010, 124 criminal aliens released by “Obama administration policies” went on to be charged with murder.
Recent estimates pin the number of criminal aliens with deportation orders currently at large in the U.S. at 179,000.
According to ICE, “Ninety-eight percent of ICE’s fiscal 2015 removals and returns fell into one or more of ICE’s civil immigration enforcement priorities, with 86 percent falling in Priority 1 and eight percent in Priority 2.”
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