47 immigrants with criminal records in Indiana were among the 280 undocumented criminal immigrants taken into custody by federal officials in the Midwest over the course of an enforcement blitz between May 18th until June 13th.
US Customs and Immigration (ICE) division Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) carried out the blitz, with a total of eight women and 272 men from 22 countries placed under arrest in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin. ICE has issued a press release stating that all the undocumented immigrants are convicted criminals in the United States and therefore fall under the agency’s enforcement priorities for deportation. The convictions include armed robbery, battery, illegal possession of a weapon and drug trafficking.
In Indiana the 45 men and two women placed under arrest came from Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Mexico, Nicaragua, Vietnam and Zambia, with the great majority of arrests – 21 in total – taking place in Indianapolis. 315,943 removals were carried out across the United States by ICE in the 2014 fiscal year, and 85% of these were convicted criminals.
“Our dedicated officers strive to make our communities safer by arresting convicted criminal aliens and removing them from the United States,” says ERO Chicago field office director Ricardo Wong. “By focusing our resources on the most egregious offenders, we ensure the very best use of our resources while immediately improving public safety.”