Operation Return to Sender? -rg

761 illegal immigrants arrested in Southern California

(http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/regstate/articles/5329906.html?showAll=y&c=y#)

761 illegal immigrants arrested in Southern California

In one of the largest such sweeps in U.S. history, federal officials
arrested illegal immigrants from 14 countries in a five county area during the past
week.

By Gillian Flaccus
The Associated Press

Federal officials said Tuesday they arrested more than 750 illegal
immigrants over the past week in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in
what they described as one of the biggest such sweeps in U.S. history.

The weeklong series of raids in the five-county region targeted
illegal immigrants who had previously been deported for crimes or
had ignored final deportation orders.

The raids netted 338 illegal immigrants who were arrested at their
homes and apartments and 423 who were identified in area jails since
Jan. 17. Those already jailed will be transferred to federal custody
when they finish serving their state sentences, said Virginia Kice,
spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The sweep netted illegal immigrants from 14 countries in all, including
Mexico, Honduras, Ukraine, India, Japan, Poland and Trinidad.

Of the 761 people arrested, more than 450 have already been deported,
Kice said.

The raids were a major push within Operation Return to Sender,
a crackdown that has resulted in 13,192 arrests nationwide since
late May. Immigration officials have also identified 3,000 inmates
in state and local jails who will be deported.

The operation targets those illegal immigrants who go into hiding
after skipping their deportation proceedings and criminals who have
re-entered the United States after being previously deported for
crimes committed in this country.

Officials estimate 600,000 illegal immigrants who have ignored
deportation orders are still at large, Kice said.

The Associated Press rode along for the first day of sweeps in Orange
County last week. Immigration officers gathered at 4 a.m. in a chilly
parking lot for a pep talk, then fanned out to houses in Anaheim and
Santa Ana.

At the first stop, an apartment complex, a half-dozen agents arrested a
29-year-old illegal immigrant wanted for a driving-under-the-influence
conviction. Kice said that man is now helping them find his brother,
a registered sex offender.

At the second stop, the agents were looking for a convicted rapist and
immigration fugitive. Instead, they arrested six men who could not
provide legal papers -- and later learned that all six were illegal
and four had criminal records.

The rapist they sought had moved out the week before, Kice said.