Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials rounded up fifteen illegal immigrant criminals living in Wisconsin this week for deportation, several of which were previously deported or convicted of heinous crimes.
Among the group is a 37-year-old Mexican national with prior convictions for strangulation, suffocation and battery, a Belarus 33-year-old convicted of homicide by vehicle, and a 53-year-old Mexican burglar, ICE announced in a media statement.
“All of the targets in this operation met the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) two top immigration enforcement priorities as established in DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson’s 2014 memorandum,” the release states.
“Priority 1 targets include threats to national security, criminal street gang members, convicted felons, and aggravated felons. Priority 2 targets include convictions for three or more misdemeanors or convictions for significant misdemeanors, including DUIs.”
Of those arrested in the two-day ICE sweep, which included help from local officials, 13 were from Mexico, one from El Salvador, and one from Belarus. Eleven were arrested in Milwaukee, two in Brookfield, one in Menomonee Falls and one in Wauwatosa, Fox 6 Reports.
“In fiscal year 2015, ICE conducted 235,413 removals nationwide,” according to the news site. “Ninety-one percent of individuals removed from the interior of the United States had previously been convicted of a criminal offense.”
The Associated Press reports the most recent two-day sweep follows a nationwide effort to remove illegal immigrants that has also resulted in the arrest of 120 immigrants from Central America who came to the country illegally since 2014.
“Starting Jan. 2, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents went looking for immigrants who had illegally crossed the border with their families since May 2014 and had been ordered out of the country by a judge,” the news service reports.
“After two days of raids, 121 people from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico were arrested. Arrests were made primarily in Texas, Georgia and North Carolina. To date, 77 people from Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico have been sent home. The remaining 44 people are fighting their deportation orders.”
Meanwhile, the problem with illegal border crossings is getting worse.
During the beginning of the 2015 budget year the overall number of families and unaccompanied children dropped in half, but another surge of illegal immigrants started again in July.
“Since the start of the 2016 budget year in October, more than 21,400 people traveling as families have been arrested,” the AP reports. “During the same period in 2015, about 7,400 such immigrants were apprehended.”
ICE efforts to remove illegal immigrants, many of them obviously dangerous criminals who have returned from prior deportations, is sending some liberal lawmakers and their supporting immigration rights groups into a frenzy.
“This must stop and it must stop today,” New York Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez said last week. “Immigrants and their families are terrorized. … These are some of the most vulnerable members of society and we are treating them like criminals.”
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, of Nevada, also called the Homeland Security Department “to have them just back off till we can find out a better way to do this,” he told the AP.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is with Reid, alleging the “mass deportations” create “division and fear,” while Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has applauded the move, according to the news service.
“Wow, because of the pressure put on by me, ICE TO LAUNCH LARGE SCALE DEPORTATION RAIDS. It’s about time!” he tweeted Dec. 24.
Leave a Comment
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.