By The newspaper
Mar 29, 2024, 01:26 AM EDT
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the arrest of more than 200 undocumented immigrants, who were convicted of drug trafficking and possession charges. All this, as part of a two-week national operation to deport foreigners who represent a danger to the country’s security.
ICE said its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) team detained a total of 216 immigrants convicted of crimes related to the possession and trafficking of methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, heroin or synthetic drugs.
Several migrants were arrested in different states
The national operation was carried out between March 11 and March 26, 2024, and immigrants who were in New York, Ohio, Florida and Colorado, among other states, were detained.
Congratulations to Enforcement and Removal Operations on these arrests that took 216 noncitizens convicted of drug-related crimes out of local communities across the nation! https://t.co/YTJITTzARn
— ICE (@ICEgov) March 28, 2024
Those arrested include a 44-year-old man originally from Mexico, who was detained in Baltimore, MD. The individual was convicted in October 2023, by the United States District Court, Southern District of New York.
The arrest of a person from El Salvador and another from Guatemala was also recorded, according to official information. The other immigrants are of other nationalities that were not provided by ICE.
“They have committed crimes against innocent people”
Russ Hott, associate deputy director of ERO, said in a statement that his agents will continue “their efforts to detain and remove individuals who are unlawfully present, and who have committed crimes against innocent people.”
“With more than 105,000 drug overdoses reported across the United States last year, the trafficking and proliferation of dangerous illegal narcotics has been demonstrated to have devastating impacts on our neighborhoods and schools,” he added.
In February they carried out another operation
Last month, ERO agents arrested 275 foreigners, designated as sex offenders who were illegally present in the United States. The operation was a police effort that took place from February 5 to 16, 2024. Those arrested posed a threat to public safety.
In fiscal year 2021, ERO arrested 73,822 immigrants with felony convictions, including: 290,178 charges and convictions related to 33,209 assaults, 4,390 sexual assaults, 7,520 weapons offenses, 1,713 homicide charges or convictions, and 1,655 kidnapping offenses .
With information from EFE
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