WASHINGTON - The Obama administration said Monday it arrested more than 3,100 immigrants who were illegally in the country and who were convicted of serious crimes or otherwise considered fugitives or threats to national security. It was part of a six-day nationwide sweep that the government described as the largest of its kind.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the sweep included every state and involved more than 1,900 of the agency's officers and agents.
The sweep comes nearly a year after ICE pledged to focus on deporting illegal immigrants with serious criminal histories and those who posed national security threats, while going easier on many who stay out of trouble. The agency's director, John Morton, said the arrests underscored that focus.
"There are 3,168 fewer criminal aliens and egregious immigration law violators in our neighborhoods," Morton said.
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Officials said most of those arrested had entered the country illegally. Others had violated the terms for legally being in the United States and were subject to deportation.
More than 1,000 of the people arrested had multiple criminal convictions. The most severe cases included murder, manslaughter, drug trafficking and sexual crimes against minors.
The totals included an estimated 50 gang members and 149 convicted sex offenders. The cases of at least 204 of them were referred to federal prosecutors for a variety of serious charges, including illegal re-entry, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Morton issued guidelines in June that suggested the agency would ease up on illegal immigrants who are military veterans, elderly, in the United States since childhood or had relatives who were citizens or legal residents. In August, the Department of Homeland Security announced a review of about 300,000 cases in the nation's clogged immigration courts aimed at giving reprieves to the lowest-priority offenders.
Latinos and other immigrant communities have eyed the pledges warily as the Obama administration has removed record numbers of illegal immigrants - nearly 400,000 in each of the last three years.
The sweep included 116 different nationalities and represented the third such sweep under Operation Cross Check.
