From May 10 to May 4 of 2010, and from May 24 to 28 of 2010, the local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fugitive operations teams (FOT) arrested 72 foreign nationals (65 men and 7 women) in Chicago. FOT is one of the divisions of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s broader strategy to heighten and implement its strategies to effectively identify and remove dangerous criminal foreign nationals from the U.S.
This May 2010 FOT operations targeted immigration fugitives and criminal foreign nationals because the top priority for ICE is to enhance public safety. These arrestees originated from various countries such as China, Columbia, South Korea, Mexico, Peru, Jamaica, Israel, India, Honduras, Ecuador, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Lithuania, Macedonia and Columbia.
Immigration fugitives include foreign nationals who have failed to appear for immigration hearings, or who have absconded after being ordered by an immigration judge to leave or be removed from the U.S. Criminal aliens include non-citizens who have been convicted of or arrested for certain crimes which include, but are not limited to, drug possession, drunken driving, domestic battery, theft, burglary or larceny.
Last year, FOT made over 35,000 arrests nationwide. Over 31,000 or 81% of those arrests involved immigration fugitives and foreign nationals with prior criminal convictions/histories.
By Aik Wan Kok, Attorney at Law, at Tiya PLC; Tel: 202-506-9767
www.tiyaimmigration.com ; http://tiyalaw.blogspot.com ; www.immigrationresource.net
We represent companies, and individuals and their families in U.S. immigration law such as green card, work visa and waiver matters. We represent clients within the U.S. and abroad.
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This article is intended for informational purposes only, and should not be relied on as a legal advice or an attorney-client relationship.
