This month, multiple law enforcement agencies conducted a weeklong crackdown on immigration in the Houston area. During that time, 646 illegal immigrants were arrested, including 543 criminal aliens and seven known gang members.
The operation took place in the Houston area from February 23 to March 2 and was led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and federal, state, and local police. The goal was to improve public safety, national security, and border security.
ICE and its partners carried out 71 criminal arrest warrants and caught 543 illegal immigrants who were in the U.S. without papers and had been charged with or guilty of crimes while they were here.
140 of the criminal aliens who were caught were charged with or guilty of a violent crime or aggravated felony, such as murder, aggravated assault, or domestic violence.
Another 34 illegal immigrants have been charged with or found guilty of a sex crime or a child sex crime, such as aggravated sexual attack of a minor, having child pornography on their person, or rape.
ICE said that 38 of the criminal aliens they arrested were found guilty of illegal gun crimes like carrying a gun without a license, being an alien in possession of a gun, and aggravated assault with a firearm. Another 52 were charged with or found guilty of drug crimes or criminal possession of a controlled substance.
Eleven criminal foreigners were charged with or found guilty of property crimes, and ninety-three were charged with or found guilty of driving while drunk.
Some of the most dangerous criminals, transnational gang members, and fugitives in the world have used the crisis at our southern border to sneak into the U.S. in recent years, said Bret Bradford, director of the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston Field Office. “After illegally entering the country, many of these criminal aliens have gone on to commit violent crime and reign terror on law-abiding residents.”
ICE Houston Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Chad Plantz also spoke about the huge operation. He said that everyone’s work had made the Houston area much better and improved the country’s national and border security.
“In just one week working alongside our counterparts from federal, state and local law enforcement, ICE HSI special agents successfully executed 71 criminal arrest warrants and made 554 administrative arrests that included illegally present human smugglers, gang members, human traffickers, child sex offenders, drug traffickers and weapons traffickers,” Plantz wrote in a statement. “As a result, we’ve sent a resounding message to transnational criminal organizations everywhere that the law enforcement community in the Texas Gulf Coast is more united than ever and will not rest until we’ve eradicated these criminal elements from the country.”
Agents from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Diplomatic Security Service, and the U.S. Marshals Service took part in the operation.
