Arrests up in 2007 for immigrant fugitives

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently announced that its teams of officers who track down criminal aliens and immigration fugitives arrested almost twice as many in 2007 than in the previous year. For the first time since records have been kept, the nation's fugitive alien population is on the decline.

In the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, ICE Fugitive Operations Teams arrested 30,408 individuals, up from 15,462 arrests made in the previous fiscal year.

One reason for the increase in arrests is the deployment of dozens more teams across the country. In 2007, ICE had 75 active teams, up from 52 teams previously.

In the Los Angeles area, ICE's five Fugitive Operations Teams took 2,667 immigration violators into custody, a 63 percent increase compared to the previous fiscal year. Of those arrested, 576 had criminal histories in addition to being in the country illegally.

"We are continuously improving our ability to identify, locate and apprehend those who either pose a threat to our communities or those who choose to ignore an immigration judge's order of removal," said Jim Hayes, Los Angeles field office director for ICE detention and removal.

ICE's success is attributed to expanded partnerships with local law enforcement agencies across the country and the newly created Fugitive Operations Support Center in Vermont, which aids in gathering and analyzing information on fugitive cases across the country. This center was opened last year and has since disseminated more than 150,000 case leads to ICE agents.

ICE established its Fugitive Operations Program in 2003 to eliminate the nation's backlog of immigration fugitives and ensure that deportation orders handed down by immigration judges are enforced.

The program is part of the multiyear plan launched by the Department of Homeland Security to secure America's borders and reduce illegal migration.