Two gang members and 61 criminals are among 72 illegal immigrants arrested in an operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this month.
Among them, seven of those arrested had been convicted or charged with alien smuggling, while another seven had DWIs.
Eight illegal aliens were charged with crimes related to substance abuse, including “drug trafficking, or possession of a controlled substance,” according to a news release.
And there were 11 different charges made among those arrested, including “a sex offense or child sex offense such as aggravated sexual assault of a minor, possession of child pornography, or rape,” with 3 of those arrested “charged or convicted."
ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Harlingen Acting Field Office Director Robert Cerna said, “the results of this operation are a clear indication of ICE’s commitment regarding the role we play in keeping our communities safe by locating, arresting and ultimately removing at-large criminal aliens who pose a threat to public safety, and other immigration fugitives."
ICE did not name the gang affiliations of the two men who were arrested and identified as gang members.
The effort was identified as a cooperative effort on the part of several law enforcement groups both on the state and federal levels.
“ICE’s leadership has made clear that ICE will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement,” according to Cerna.